Effect of Field-Aligned Potentials on M-I Coupling at Jupiter: A parameter space study

Details Effect of Field-Aligned Potentials on M-I Coupling at Jupiter: A parameter space study Effect of Field-Aligned Potentials on M-I Coupling at Jupiter: A parameter space study

Dec 2010

adsabs.harvard.edu/cgi-bin/nph-data_query?bibcode=2010agufmsm23a1923r&link_type=abstract

American Geophysical Union, Fall Meeting 2010, abstract #SM23A-1923

Physics

[2704] Magnetospheric Physics / Auroral Phenomena, [2736] Magnetospheric Physics / Magnetosphere/Ionosphere Interactions, [2756] Magnetospheric Physics / Planetary Magnetospheres, [5706] Planetary Sciences: Fluid Planets / Aurorae

Scientific paper

We present a time-independent model of Jupiter’s rotationally driven aurora based on torque balance between the ionosphere and magnetosphere, including the effects of a field-aligned potential and a variable Pedersen conductance. The field-aligned potential arises from field-aligned current limitation at high-latitudes and is located at ~2-3 RJ jovicentric, changing the mapping of the electric fields between the ionosphere and the magnetosphere and increasing the field-aligned current density. Precipitating electrons modify the Pedersen conductance, which varies with electron precipitation energy and incident energy flux. Ray et al. (2010) showed that the primary effect of the field-aligned potentials is to enhance coupling by increasing angular momentum transfer from the ionosphere to the magnetosphere, resulting in an auroral emission that maps to an equatorial radius of ~25 RJ. The modeled auroral properties are consistent with many the observed characteristics of Jupiter’s main auroral oval including the energy flux into the ionosphere (2 - 30 mW/m2), the width of the aurora at the ionosphere (1000 km) and field-aligned potentials consistent with observed electron energies ( 30 - 200 keV). We extend the Ray et al. (2010) study to investigate variations in the auroral current system with high-latitude electron density and temperature, radial mass transport rate, background Pedersen conductance, and location of the acceleration region along the flux tube.

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