Ion cyclotron waves at Io: Implications for torus composition and variations of Io atmosphere

Details Ion cyclotron waves at Io: Implications for torus composition and variations of Io atmosphere Ion cyclotron waves at Io: Implications for torus composition and variations of Io atmosphere

Apr 2003

adsabs.harvard.edu/cgi-bin/nph-data_query?bibcode=2003eaeja.....4770b&link_type=abstract

EGS - AGU - EUG Joint Assembly, Abstracts from the meeting held in Nice, France, 6 - 11 April 2003, abstract #4770

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Scientific paper

When the flowing torus plasma encounters the upper atmosphere of Io, newly created ions are accelerated by the motional electric field. Many of these ions are reneutralized and form a spray of fast neutrals that travel far away from Io before being reionized and picked up into the torus. These ions have ring distributions able to provide free energy for wave growth via cyclotron resonance. Galileo data showed the existence of ion cyclotron waves in the Io torus, with frequencies near the gyrofrequencies of SO2+, SO+, and S+ ions. Wave characteristics change along each flyby, and from one orbit to another. The observed wave variability indicates that the Io torus is not uniform, and that ion pickup composition changes with time and space. As pickup ions originate from Io atmosphere, the wave variation suggests that the moon´s atmosphere is changing spatially as well as temporarily. We use kinetic dispersion analysis to estimate the densities in the torus for the three ring distributions that are needed to have either SO2+ (orbits I0 and I32) or SO+ (orbits I24, I25, and I27) waves as the dominant component, and S+ ion cyclotron instability above threshold. We infer from wave properties that the atmosphere of Io varies temporally throughout the mission but that it also has a spatial variation in composition at any instant of time.

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