HST Spectra of the Jovian Ultraviolet Aurora: Search for Heavy Ion Precipitation

Details HST Spectra of the Jovian Ultraviolet Aurora: Search for Heavy Ion Precipitation HST Spectra of the Jovian Ultraviolet Aurora: Search for Heavy Ion Precipitation

Nov 1998

adsabs.harvard.edu/cgi-bin/nph-data_query?bibcode=1998apj...507..955t&link_type=abstract

The Astrophysical Journal, Volume 507, Issue 2, pp. 955-967.

Astronomy and Astrophysics

Astronomy

16

Planets And Satellites: Individual: Jupiter, Ultraviolet: Solar System

Scientific paper

Ultraviolet spectra using Hubble Space Telescope sampled between 1250 and 1680 Å at spectral resolution <=0.57 Å are reported for characteristically bright regions of Jupiter's morning and afternoon northern aurora. Several observed spectra exhibit sharply enhanced resolution. We interpret this as bright auroral emission foreshortened on the morning limb with a maximum intensity at least as high as 2000 kR. We have searched for evidence that the primary precipitating particles exciting the aurora include the heavy ions known to exist in Jupiter's plasma torus and magnetosphere. We have also searched for such ambient heavy ions and neutrals at rest in the auroral ionosphere, the end products of previous precipitation, excited by the auroral cascade. We argue that primary emission would be characterized by a dramatically Doppler-broadened (~10-15 Å) and redshifted line profile resulting from the cascade process and the angle between the line of sight and the magnetic field lines in the atmosphere. In contrast, ambient emission would be distinguished by narrow emission lines. We have modeled the theoretical sulfur and oxygen line shapes for ion precipitation and conclude that electron precipitation is responsible for most of the H_2 emissions. O ions contributed <13% of the precipitating energy flux, and S ions contributed <50%. This dominance suggests that field-aligned magnetospheric currents are more important than energetization of energetic ions and subsequent scattering by plasma waves as a mechanism for generating the Jovian aurora. We set an upper limit over our spectra of 35-43 R to the emission from ambient oxygen and sulfur ions and their neutrals, except that for the S II 1256 triplet, the upper limit for the nominally brightest line, at 1260 Å, is 74 R. Hence, we find no evidence for the accumulation of sulfur in the auroral ionosphere. A single narrow emission line from an unidentified ambient specie near 1254 Å may be detected at the 4 sigma level, introducing the possibility of complex auroral aeronomy. Differences were observed in the auroral spectral hydrocarbon absorption at different locations, which cannot be interpreted without ambiguity between auroral and atmospheric structural causes. We have found that the brighter emission in an auroral sector consistently shows more spectral hydrocarbon absorption than the dimmer emission. We suggest two alternative physical explanations for this phenomenon.

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