The Transition from Plasma Torus to Plasma Sheet at Jupiter

Details The Transition from Plasma Torus to Plasma Sheet at Jupiter The Transition from Plasma Torus to Plasma Sheet at Jupiter

Apr 2003

adsabs.harvard.edu/cgi-bin/nph-data_query?bibcode=2003eaeja.....4669p&link_type=abstract

EGS - AGU - EUG Joint Assembly, Abstracts from the meeting held in Nice, France, 6 - 11 April 2003, abstract #4669

Computer Science

Scientific paper

We review observations from the Galileo plasma analyzer (PLS) of thermal ions and suprathermal electrons in the Jovian magnetosphere for the range of radial distance approximately 10 - 40 RJ. Remote observations of the aurora have shown that the main ring of emission is conjugate to the equatorial plane at locations beyond the orbit of Ganymede at 15 RJ, and thus connects within this region of the magnetosphere. Intense field-aligned beams of hot electrons are observed beyond ˜17 RJ. These beams are direct evidence of auroral processes and their observation in the equatorial plane places constraints on possible driving mechanisms. This part of the magnetosphere also features the transition from torus to plasma sheet which is characterized by decreasing ion densities and increasing temperatures as functions of radial distance. Subcorotation of the plasma is observed, as are radial components of flow. The radial motion is outward in the evening sectors, but instances of inward flow occur between noon and dusk. On the dayside, it is confirmed that field-aligned motions of protons and heavy ions play an important role in the balance of stresses, a fact that was previously inferred on the basis of Voyager observations. The spacecraft samples the symmetry plane of the magnetosphere at just two diametrically opposed planetary longitudes due to the tilt of the magnetic dipole. However, systematic differences in the densities and temperatures of the thermal ions and in the intensities of the electron beams at those two longitudes are indications of System III periodicities.

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