Solar Orbiter's first Venus flyby: observations from the Radio and Plasma Wave instrument

On December 27, 2020, Solar Orbiter completed its first gravity assist manoeuvre of Venus (VGAM1). While this flyby was performed to provide the spacecraft with sufficient velocity to get closer to the Sun and observe its poles from progressively higher inclinations, the Radio and Plasma Wave (RPW) consortium, along with other operational in-situ instruments, had the opportunity to perform high cadence measurements and study the plasma properties in the induced magnetosphere of Venus. In this work, we review the main observations of the RPW instrument during VGAM1. They include the identification of a number of magnetospheric plasma wave modes, measurements of the electron number densities computed using the quasi-thermal noise spectroscopy technique and inferred from the probe-to-spacecraft potential, the observation of dust impact signatures, kinetic solitary structures, and localized structures at the bow-shock, in addition to the validation of the wave normal analysis on-board from the Low Frequency Receiver.