Use of Passive EM technique to Explore Oceans in Jupiter's Icy Galilean Satellites

Physics

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1500 Geomagnetism And Paleomagnetism, 1515 Geomagnetic Induction, 1517 Magnetic Anomaly Modeling, 1555 Time Variations--Diurnal To Secular

Scientific paper

Europa, Ganymede and Callisto, the three large icy satellites of Jupiter are located in the inner magnetosphere of Jupiter. Because the rotation and magnetic axes of Jupiter are not aligned, all three of the moons experience varying magnetic fields at the synodic rotation period of Jupiter in their frames. Magnetic field observations from the vicinity of the moons have revealed dipolar electromagnetic induction responses to the varying field of Jupiter. These responses are close to those expected for perfectly conducting spherical moons. Detailed analysis reveals that Europa, Ganymede and Callisto must possess regions where the conductivity exceeds 0.06, 0.02 and 0.02 S/m respectively. We show that the ionospheres of the moons and plasma pick-up in their vicinity do not provide sufficiently conductivity to account for the observed signatures. Conducting cores, if any, are also much too small to produce the amplitude of the observed field perturbations. Such large conductivities are also unattainable in ice or silicates. However, if the ice layer is largely melted and contains dissolved salts, the observed signatures can be explained. Global Earth-like oceans under the surfaces of these moons could account for the observations provided they are at least a few km thick. The oceans cannot be covered by more than 200, 300 and 300 km of ice, respectively. In this report, we provide an overview of magnetic field observations from Europa, Ganymede and Callisto that provide the main evidence for oceans in these moons. Also, we provide detailed modeling of the signatures by using a three-layer model to constrain the depths, thicknesses and the conductivities of the oceans.

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