Plasma Observations of Magnetopause Crossings along Jupiter’s Distant Dusk-side Flank from ~ 1650 to 2550 RJ

Details Plasma Observations of Magnetopause Crossings along Jupiter’s Distant Dusk-side Flank from ~ 1650 to 2550 RJ Plasma Observations of Magnetopause Crossings along Jupiter’s Distant Dusk-side Flank from ~ 1650 to 2550 RJ

Dec 2009

adsabs.harvard.edu/cgi-bin/nph-data_query?bibcode=2009agufmsm23b1615e&link_type=abstract

American Geophysical Union, Fall Meeting 2009, abstract #SM23B-1615

Physics

[2724] Magnetospheric Physics / Magnetopause And Boundary Layers, [2744] Magnetospheric Physics / Magnetotail, [2748] Magnetospheric Physics / Magnetotail Boundary Layers, [6220] Planetary Sciences: Solar System Objects / Jupiter

Scientific paper

The New Horizons (NH) spacecraft entered Jupiter’s dayside magnetosphere at 67 RJ on DOY 56, 2007. After closest approach at 32 RJ on the dusk-side, NH proceeded on a trajectory nearly directly down Jupiter’s magnetotail, including the previously unexplored ~150 to 2550 RJ tail region. Instruments aboard NH continued to make in-situ observations of the magnetotail through DOY 172, 2007, a time when NH was still moving into and out of the magnetosphere and dusk flank boundaries at mid-latitudes. During this period, NH made at least thirteen crossings of Jupiter’s dusk-side flank magnetopause, the first crossing occurring at ~06:45 UT on DOY 132, 2007 at 1655 RJ. Here, we report on plasma observations from the Solar Wind Around Pluto (SWAP) instrument for the ~40 day period covering the first magnetopause crossing through the end of the observation campaign. The magnetopause crossings were identified by transitions between magnetospheric to magnetosheath plasma distributions, transitions which were at times sharp while at other times comparatively gradual. The sharp transitions appear to be similar to the discontinuities observed in some of the deep tail magnetopause crossings at Earth and may indicate that at times Jupiter’s deep tail is locally closed to plasma entry from the magnetosheath. Also, a magnetospheric boundary layer adjacent to the magnetopause was present in a number of the magnetopause encounters. The plasma flux and energy per charge (E/Q) peak were typically lower in the boundary layer than in the sheath, indicating a reduced density and bulk velocity. The distributions themselves were generally largely single species which we interpret to be protons. These observations seem to indicate that the low energy (< 7.5 keV/Q) plasma distributions just inside of and adjacent to Jupiter’s deep tail magnetopause consist primarily of light ions either from the solar wind and magnetosheath, Jupiter’s ionosphere or a combination of the two.

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