Uranus' magnetic field and particle drifts in its inner magnetosphere

Details Uranus' magnetic field and particle drifts in its inner magnetosphere Uranus' magnetic field and particle drifts in its inner magnetosphere

Sep 1998

adsabs.harvard.edu/cgi-bin/nph-data_query?bibcode=1998jgr...10320257g&link_type=abstract

Journal of Geophysical Research, Volume 103, Issue E9, p. 20257-20266

Physics

3

Magnetospheric Physics: Plasmasphere

Scientific paper

Both the Q3 model (dipole and quadrupole) and OCT model (Q3 plus octupole) of Uranus' magnetic field within 5 RU are expressed in α and β (Euler potentials) coordinate systems. By using the α and β coordinates of magnetic fields, we calculate the drift paths and velocities for the zero second invariant (J=0) charged particles with different total energies. Many aspects of Uranus' magnetic field are similar to those of Neptune [Ho et al., 1997], such as a warped zero magnetic scalar potential surface and a region of local distorted magnetic field lines that gives rise to a large ``open'' area on the planetary surface when the field lines are mapped from this region. It is found that the OCT model gives a map of magnetic field coordinates on the planetary surface that better explains the Voyager 2 ultraviolet spectrometer (UVS) data of Herbert and Sandel [1994] than the Q3 model. The grossly distorted α and β contours on the planetary surface may explain the incomplete aurora circles around both magnetic poles, and weak UV emissions are found lying along a belt that coincides remarkably well with the OCT magnetic equator. In addition, tracing of drift paths of J=0 charged particles shows that the weak emission along the magnetic equator is due to the precipitation of J=0 particles, or particles with a large equatorial pitch angle. In particular, the low-energy J=0 particles tend to drift toward a planet in three concentrated regions where UV emissions are observed.

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