The Io Footprint Morphology

Details The Io Footprint Morphology The Io Footprint Morphology

Sep 2008

adsabs.harvard.edu/cgi-bin/nph-data_query?bibcode=2008epsc.conf..746j&link_type=abstract

European Planetary Science Congress 2008, Proceedings of the conference held 21-25 September, 2008 in Münster, Germany. Online a

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ABSTRACT The innermost Galilean moon Io is embedded in a dense plasma torus. It disturbs the flow of the corotating torus plasma and generates MHD waves. Especially the Alfvén mode, which carries electric currents along the magnetic field, is responsible for the famous Io footprint in the Jovian aurora. The Alfvén waves are partly reflected at plasma density gradients e.g. at the torus edges and form a complicated wave pattern. The footprint morphology in the Jovian aurora displays this pattern. Besides the main spot feature, a trailing wake extending over up to 100 degrees and occasionally occurringmultiple spots indicating reflections have been identified. The intensity, the occurrence of multiple spots and the inter-spot distances have been found to vary strongly [1]. Io ismoving up and down in the plasma torus confined to the centrifugal equator. It interacts with a dense plasma when located in the torus center and considerably thinner plasma at the torus flanks. The incoming plasma density controls the interaction strength and wave amplitude. This primarily leads to a relationship between the footprint brightness and Io's centrifugal latitude [1]. However, it has also been shown that the reflection angle is strongly depending on the wave amplitude due to nonlinear effects [2]. This has an impact on the inter-spot distances. On the other hand this parameter is also directly affected when Io changes its position in the plasma torus. To deconvolve this system we present the results of our 3D MHD simulations showing the influence of Io's centrifugal latitude and nonlinearities on the footprint morphology particularly on the number of spots and inter-spot distances. We observe interference phenomena leading to locally enhanced or reduced footprint brightness. We also discuss the recently observed leading spot feature [3]. References [1] Gérard, J.-C. et al. (2006), JGR, 111, 12210-+, doi:10.1029/2006JA011965. [2] Jacobsen, S. et al. (2007). GRL, 34, L10202, doi:10.1029/2006GL029187 [3] Bonfond, B. et al. (2008), GRL, 35, L05107, doi:10.1029/2007GL032418

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