The Plasma Environment and Electron Beams at Io

Details The Plasma Environment and Electron Beams at Io The Plasma Environment and Electron Beams at Io

May 2002

adsabs.harvard.edu/cgi-bin/nph-data_query?bibcode=2002agusm.p21b..02p&link_type=abstract

American Geophysical Union, Spring Meeting 2002, abstract #P21B-02

Physics

2732 Magnetosphere Interactions With Satellites And Rings, 2756 Planetary Magnetospheres (5443, 5737, 6030), 5780 Tori And Exospheres, 6218 Jovian Satellites, 2431 Ionosphere/Magnetosphere Interactions (2736)

Scientific paper

Features of the plasma environment of Io are revealed by measurements from the Galileo plasma analyzer during four near encounters with that moon. This wealth of observations includes evidence of moderate deflection and heating of torus plasma in the upstream region at radial distances 5 - 10 RIo from Io caused by interaction with a cloud of atmospheric gas, stronger deflections at altitudes several hundreds of km associated with the exclusion of plasmas from the conducting ionosphere, extreme depletion of torus plasma over the northern polar region where clusters of heavy ions are detected, and cool dense stagnant plasma on the downstream side threaded by field-aligned beams of electrons with energies hundreds of eV to several keV. These latter observations came during the first encounter with Io in December 1995 at an altitude 900 km. When projected to Jupiter's ionosphere, the energy flux of the electrons is similar to that of the FUV emissions from Io's footprint. At Io, the beams provide a mechanism for ionization of neutral gas. Subsequent encounters with the ionosphere at altitudes 200 km on the upstream side of the moon and over the northern pole also exhibit evidence of field-aligned beams of hot electrons, though with lower intensities. In this report we discuss the measurements gained during these encounters with special attention paid to the electron beams, their directional and spectral characteristics, and their locations.

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