Physics – Plasma Physics
Scientific paper
Nov 2009
adsabs.harvard.edu/cgi-bin/nph-data_query?bibcode=2009jgra..11411201h&link_type=abstract
Journal of Geophysical Research, Volume 114, Issue A11, CiteID A11201
Physics
Plasma Physics
5
Planetary Sciences: Solar System Objects: Jupiter, Magnetospheric Physics: Magnetotail, Space Plasma Physics: Charged Particle Motion And Acceleration, Magnetospheric Physics: Magnetospheric Configuration And Dynamics, Magnetospheric Physics: Magnetic Reconnection (7526, 7835)
Scientific paper
Jupiter's immense magnetotail was uniquely traversed and observed in situ to 2562 Jovian radii (RJ = 71,492 km) for the first time by the Pluto-bound New Horizons spacecraft during the first half of 2007. We show evidence that energetic ions with sulfur-rich composition traceable to Io's volcanism originated 150 ± 40 RJ antisunward of the planet and were recurrently released and funneled by the magnetic field down the magnetotail. Ions detected at New Horizons by the Pluto Energetic Particle Spectrometer Science Investigation (PEPSSI) instrument showed unmistakable signatures of velocity dispersion. We performed a survey of the unambiguous dispersion events observed by PEPSSI and provide a quantitative description of each event's dispersion characteristics. Energetic ions are sensitive probes of the magnetic field structure in the magnetotail; so, for a case study of one of the most interesting events, beginning on day of year 118, 28 April 2007, we are also able to estimate small-scale features of the magnetotail. Our observations (which include energies above ˜2 keV/nuc and total energies below ˜1 MeV), combined with straightforward simulations of particle flow, are consistent with narrow spatial structures, or filaments, on the order of 5 RJ wide in the ˜400 RJ wide > 9000 RJ long magnetotail; the Solar Wind Around Pluto plasma instrument measurements show coherent structures on a much larger scale (˜500 RJ) in the same region.
Haggerty Dennis K.
Hill Matthew E.
McNutt Ralph L.
Paranicas Christopher P.
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