Cassini UVIS Observations of the Io Plasma Torus. III. Observations of Temporal and Azimuthal Variability

Details Cassini UVIS Observations of the Io Plasma Torus. III. Observations of Temporal and Azimuthal Variability Cassini UVIS Observations of the Io Plasma Torus. III. Observations of Temporal and Azimuthal Variability

2005-08-01

arxiv.org/abs/astro-ph/0508055v1

Icarus 180 (2006) 124-140

Astronomy and Astrophysics

Astrophysics

35 pages including 12 figures and 2 tables

Scientific paper

10.1016/j.icarus.2005.07.013

In this third paper in a series presenting observations by the Cassini Ultraviolet Imaging Spectrometer (UVIS) of the Io plasma torus, we show remarkable, though subtle, spatio-temporal variations in torus properties. The Io torus is found to exhibit significant, near-sinusoidal variations in ion composition as a function of azimuthal position. The azimuthal variation in composition is such that the mixing ratio of S II is strongly correlated with the mixing ratio of S III and the equatorial electron density and strongly anti-correlated with the mixing ratios of both S IV and O II and the equatorial electron temperature. Surprisingly, the azimuthal variation in ion composition is observed to have a period of 10.07 hours--1.5% longer than the System III rotation period of Jupiter, yet 1.3% shorter than the System IV period defined by Brown (1995). Although the amplitude of the azimuthal variation of S III and O II remained in the range of 2-5%, the amplitude of the S II and S IV compositional variation ranged between 5-25% during the UVIS observations. Furthermore, the amplitude of the azimuthal variations of S II and S IV appears to be modulated by its location in System III longitude, such that when the region of maximum S II mixing ratio (minimum S IV mixing ratio) is aligned with a System III longitude of ~200 +/- 15 degrees, the amplitude is a factor of ~4 greater than when the variation is anti-aligned. This behavior can explain numerous, often apparently contradictory, observations of variations in the properties of the Io plasma torus with the System III and System IV coordinate systems.

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