Jovicentric latitude effect on the bKOM radio emission observed by Ulysses/URAP

Autor: C. H. Barrow, Robert J. MacDowall, Alain Lecacheux
Rok vydání: 2001
Předmět:
Zdroj: Astronomy & Astrophysics. 366:343-350
ISSN: 1432-0746
0004-6361
DOI: 10.1051/0004-6361:20000100
Popis: During 1994 and into 1996, Ulysses was at distances of 5 AU or more from Jupiter and travelling from south to north of the ecliptic plane. At these distances, the jovian broadband radio emission (bKOM) was only received occasionally by the Unied Radio and Plasma Experiment (URAP) on board the Ulysses spacecraft. The signals were generally weak and much care is needed to nd and to identify the events. It is found that the visibility and polarization of the bKOM appears to depend upon the jovicentric latitude of Ulysses (DUly) at the time of observation. All but two of the bKOM events observed when Ulysses was at northern jovicentric latitudes were predominantly right-hand (RH) polarized while events recorded when the spacecraft was at southerly jovicentric latitudes were all predominantly LH polarized, the change taking place somewhere between 3:9 DUly 8:8, close to 0 jovimagnetic latitude. Compared with previous observations of the bKOM, made by spacecraft considerably closer to Jupiter, the present occurrence probabilities were lower for the LH polarized events although the distribution was similar. For the RH polarized events, however, the distribution was dierent, the so-called main peak being absent or, perhaps, displaced towards a larger central meridian longitude. It is shown that, in a two-dimensional model, if cyclotron maser emission in a dipole magnetic eld is assumed for Jupiter, the detection of bKOM at a given frequency by a spacecraft at a specied location, determines a unique value of for an assumed value of L and a given eld model. This is not true for a three-dimensional model. The present results raise questions on the application of the cyclotron maser theory to bKOM emission.
Databáze: OpenAIRE