Io Plasma Torus: Nature of the Iogenic Plasma Source

Details Io Plasma Torus: Nature of the Iogenic Plasma Source Io Plasma Torus: Nature of the Iogenic Plasma Source

Sep 1996

adsabs.harvard.edu/cgi-bin/nph-data_query?bibcode=1996dps....28.2314m&link_type=abstract

American Astronomical Society, DPS meeting #28, #23.14; Bulletin of the American Astronomical Society, Vol. 28, p.1154

Astronomy and Astrophysics

Astronomy

Scientific paper

The primary source of plasma for Jupiter's magnetosphere is supplied internally by Io, the innermost Galilean satellite. The Iogenic plasma source is created by gases (e.g., Na, K, O, S, and SO_2) lost from Io as they undergo electron impact and charge exchange reactions in the plasma torus. This Iogenic plasma source provides mass, momentum, pick-up electrical conductivity, and energy to the plasma torus. The three-dimensional nature of the Iogenic plasma source is an important input quantity (1) in local studies to understand the plasma torus properties (density, composition, subcorotational motion, electric currents, and temperature) and the plasma torus near-Io MHD flow and atmosphere interactions, and (2) in more global studies to understand the spacetime structure of the outward transport dynamics of the plasma torus, such as in RCM-J (Rice Convection Model for Jupiter) calculations. To elucidate and quantify the nature of the Iogenic plasma source for such studies, we have undertaken simulations of it using the AER neutral cloud models. Calculations will be presented to illustrate the spacetime nature of the Iogenic plasma source and to estimate the net-mass, momentum and energy input rates to the plasma torus and the height-integrated electrical conductivity near Io and in Jupiter's ionosphere. These calculations show that the instantaneous Iogenic plasma source is highly peaked at Io's position in the plasma torus and that its rates vary significantly with Io System III longitude and also with Io phase angle because of the east-west electric field. For the lower-velocity escape of gases by incomplete collisional cascade processes (i.e., plasma torus ion sputtering), contributions to the instantaneous Iogenic plasma source are primarily confined to a broader (but still limited) spatial region in L-shell and System III longitude angle near Io. For the higher-velocity loss of gases by charge exchange, contributions to the Iogenic plasma source are more spatially concentrated at Io and produce a large pick-up electrical conductivity with large associated field-aligned currents in the vicinity of the satellite. The Iogenic source should therefore locally reduce both the magnetic field and the plasma flow velocity.

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