| Autor: |
Satoh, Shinnosuke, Tsuchiya, Fuminori, Sakai, Shotaro, Kasaba, Yasumasa, Nichols, Jonathan D., Kimura, Tomoki, Yasuda, Rikuto, Hue, Vincent |
| Předmět: |
|
| Zdroj: |
Geophysical Research Letters; 8/16/2024, Vol. 51 Issue 15, p1-8, 8p |
| Abstrakt: |
The electromagnetic interaction between Europa and the plasma sheet in the Jovian magnetosphere generates Alfvén waves, ultimately generating auroral footprints in Jupiter's atmosphere. The position of Europa's auroral footprint is a proxy for travel time of the Alfvén waves. We measured Europa's footprint position using the far‐ultraviolet images of Jupiter obtained by the Hubble Space Telescope in two observing campaigns in 2014 and 2022. The measured footprint position indicates a longer Alfvén travel time in the 2022 campaign. We retrieved the plasma sheet parameters at Europa's orbit from the footprint position by tracing the Alfvén waves launched at Europa and found an increase of both mass density and temperature in the plasma sheet in 2022. The Poynting flux generated at Europa is calculated with the retrieved plasma sheet parameters, which suggests the total energy transfer from Europa to its auroral footprint is similar to the case of Io. Plain Language Summary: Europa is an obstacle to the plasma corotating with Jupiter's magnetosphere. Through the interaction between Europa and the magnetospheric plasma flow, Alfvén waves are launched at Europa. The Alfvén waves propagate along the field line and ultimately generate auroral emissions at locations distant from the instantaneous magnetic footprint of Europa. The position of Europa's auroral footprint is a proxy for the travel time of the Alfvén waves. We measured the position of Europa's auroral footprint using the far‐ultraviolet images of Jupiter obtained by the Hubble Space Telescope in two observing campaigns in 2014 and 2022. We found large deviations of the footprint position between the two observing campaigns. By tracing the Alfvén waves launched at Europa, we retrieved plasma mass density and temperature at Europa's orbit from the measured footprint position. It is revealed that time variation in the plasma mass density and temperature caused the deviations in the footprint position. We also calculated the Poynting flux generated at Europa using the retrieved plasma parameters and found that the total energy transfer from Europa to its auroral footprint is similar to the case of Io. Key Points: We measured the equatorial lead angle of Europa's auroral footprint in Jupiter's atmosphere with the HST data taken in 2014 and 2022Plasma conditions at Europa's orbit are retrieved from the measured lead angle by tracing the Europa‐originated Alfvén wavesChanges in the plasma conditions at Europa's orbit can account for the variation of the footprint lead angle [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR] |
| Databáze: |
Complementary Index |
| Externí odkaz: |
|
Plný text