Search For Mid-ir H3+ Emission in Jupiter's Northern Aurora

Details Search For Mid-ir H3+ Emission in Jupiter's Northern Aurora Search For Mid-ir H3+ Emission in Jupiter's Northern Aurora

Sep 2009

adsabs.harvard.edu/cgi-bin/nph-data_query?bibcode=2009dps....41.2412t&link_type=abstract

American Astronomical Society, DPS meeting #41, #24.12

Astronomy and Astrophysics

Astronomy

Scientific paper

In order to probe the magnetospheric heating of Jupiter's auroral atmosphere, and to evaluate the departure of H3+ from LTE, we used TEXES at the IRTF telescope to obtain high-resolution, mid-infrared, longslit spectra of Jupiter's northern auroral "hot spot” near System III longitude 180o. We searched for selected pure-rotational and v1 -> v2 difference-band lines of H3+ using theoretically predicted frequencies and line intensities. No pure rotational H3+ line emission was detected near the predicted frequencies. However, two metastable v1 -> v2 difference band lines appear to have been marginally detected at the 68% confidence level. The metastable difference band lines serve as proxies for the rotational lines in establishing the total auroral H3+ column. The non-detection of the pure rotational line sets a 1-σιγμα upper limit to the vertical column abundance of H3+ in the northern Jovian aurora of 8.4x1012 cm-2, which is independent of any assumption concerning the departure of the vibrational H3+ energy level populations from thermal equilibrium. The marginally detected 943.953 cm-1 v1 -> v2 difference band line implies a vertical H3+ column abundance in the range (4.5±3.1)x1012 cm-2, consistent with the upper limit from the rotational line. This is consistent with the column 6x1012 cm-2 inferred by Melin et al. (2005; Icarus 178, 97) from their non-LTE H3+ emission model, in which the fundamental-band ro-vib levels are underpopulated by a factor of 6-10 relative to LTE. The difference band line constrains the vibrational relaxation of the IR-active v2 fundamental band in Jupiter's aurora to a factor of 4.5-7.5, with an uncertainty ±68%.

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