Mass and Energy Flow Through the Jovian Magnetosphere

Details Mass and Energy Flow Through the Jovian Magnetosphere Mass and Energy Flow Through the Jovian Magnetosphere

Dec 2010

adsabs.harvard.edu/cgi-bin/nph-data_query?bibcode=2010agufmsm23a1913b&link_type=abstract

American Geophysical Union, Fall Meeting 2010, abstract #SM23A-1913

Physics

[5737] Planetary Sciences: Fluid Planets / Magnetospheres

Scientific paper

We a simple model of the flow of mass and energy through the jovian magnetosphere based on Voyager, Galileo and Cassini data. Combining the observed distribution of mass with conservation of the ~500 kg/s flux of Iogenic material we derive net radial flows that reach the local Alfven speed around 50-60 Rj. Estimates of mass ejected down the magnetotail in plasmoids only add up to a few percent of the source, suggesting most of the material must either be lost as a steady drizzle down the tail or leak out of the magnetopause. Approximately 230 tons of solar wind protons bombard the magnetopause each second. Thus, only a few percent leaking into the magnetosphere would swamp the mass source at Io. The dominance of sulfur and oxygen ions in the inner and middle magnetosphere indicate that little of such a solar wind source penetrates far into the magnetosphere. But mixing of iogenic and solar wind plasma (such as via Kelvin-Helmholtz instabilities) may be prevalent in the outer regions. The flow of energy through the system is not so clear to understand. Models of the physical chemistry of the Io plasma torus are consistent with a substantial source of energy from ion pick-up. But additional energy must also be pumped into the population of hot electrons (perhaps via plasma waves or as a dissipative by-product of fluxtube interchange motions). Most of the power going into the torus is radiated as UV line emission (1.2-2.5 TW) with only a little being carried by the outwardly diffusing plasma. As the plasma expands out into the large volumes of the middle and outer magnetosphere one would expect the plasma to cool. But the plasma temperature is observed to increase with distance and one of the major unresolved mysteries of the magnetosphere is how the plasma is in fact heated as it moves outwards. Approximately 0.6-3 TW of kinetic energy and 2.7-15 TW of thermal energy must be added to the plasma in the plasma disk. The ultimate source of this energy is likely Jupiter's rotation (coupled to the magnetodisk via the magnetic field) but some of the 2 x 10^4 TW of kinetic energy of the solar wind impinging on the magnetotail is likely tapped in the outer magnetosphere.

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