[1] Observations of solar wind from both large polar coronal holes (PCHs) during Ulysses' third orbit showed that the fast solar wind was slightly slower, significantly less dense, cooler, and had less mass and momentum flux than during the previous solar minimum (first) orbit. In addition, while much more variable, measurements in the slower, in-ecliptic wind match quantitatively with Ulysses and show essentially identical trends. Thus, these combined observations indicate significant, long-term variations in solar wind output from the entire Sun. The significant, long-term trend to lower dynamic pressures means that the heliosphere has been shrinking and the heliopause must be moving inward toward the Voyager spacecraft. In addition, our observations suggest a significant and global reduction in the mass and energy fed in below the sonic point in the corona. The lower supply of mass and energy may result naturally from a reduction of open magnetic flux during this period. Citation: McComas, D.
Juno swoops around giant Jupiter Jupiter is the largest and most massive planet in our solar system. NASA's Juno spacecraft arrived at Jupiter on 4 July 2016 and made its first close pass on 27 August 2016. Bolton et al. present results from Juno's flight just above the cloud tops, including images of weather in the polar regions and measurements of the magnetic and gravitational fields. Juno also used microwaves to peer below the visible surface, spotting gas welling up from the deep interior. Connerney et al. measured Jupiter's aurorae and plasma environment, both as Juno approached the planet and during its first close orbit. Science , this issue p. 821 , p. 826
In July 2016, NASA's Juno mission becomes the first spacecraft to enter polar orbit of Jupiter and venture deep into unexplored polar territories of the magnetosphere. Focusing on these polar regions, we review current understanding of the structure and dynamics of the magnetosphere and summarize the outstanding issues. The Juno mission pro-
We present the first comparison of Jupiter's auroral morphology with an extended, continuous, and complete set of near‐Jupiter interplanetary data, revealing the response of Jupiter's auroras to the interplanetary conditions. We show that for ∼1–3 days following compression region onset, the planet's main emission brightened. A duskside poleward region also brightened during compressions, as well as during shallow rarefaction conditions at the start of the program. The power emitted from the noon active region did not exhibit dependence on any interplanetary parameter, though the morphology typically differed between rarefactions and compressions. The auroras equatorward of the main emission brightened over ∼10 days following an interval of increased volcanic activity on Io. These results show that the dependence of Jupiter's magnetosphere and auroras on the interplanetary conditions are more diverse than previously thought.
Previous Juno mission event studies revealed powerful electron and ion acceleration, to 100s of kiloelectron volts and higher, at low altitudes over Jupiter's main aurora and polar cap (PC; poleward of the main aurora). Here we examine 30-1200 keV JEDI-instrument particle data from the first 16 Juno orbits to determine how common, persistent, repeatable, and ordered these processes are. For the PC regions, we find (1) upward electron angle beams, sometimes extending to megaelectron volt energies, are persistently present in essentially all portions of the polar cap but are generated by two distinct and spatially separable processes. (2) Particle evidence for megavolt downward electrostatic potentials are observable for 80% of the polar cap crossings and over substantial fractions of the PC area. For the main aurora, with the orbit favoring the duskside, we find that (1) three distinct zones are observed that are generally arranged from lower to higher latitudes but sometimes mixed. They are designated here as the diffuse aurora (DifA), Zone-I (ZI(D)) showing primarily downward electron acceleration, and Zone-II (ZII(B)) showing bidirectional acceleration with the upward intensities often greater than downward intensities. (2) ZI(D) and ZII(B) sometimes (but not always) contain, respectively, downward electron inverted Vs and downward proton inverted Vs, (potentials up to 400 kV) but, otherwise, have broadband distributions. (3) Surprisingly, both ZI(D) and ZII(B) can generate equally powerful auroral emissions. It is suggested but demonstrated for intense portions of only one auroral crossing, that ZI(D) and ZII(B) are associated, respectively, with upward and downward electric currents. Plain Language Summary The science objectives of the Juno mission, with its spacecraft now orbiting Jupiter in a polar orbit, include understanding the space environments of Jupiter's polar regions and generation of Jupiter's uniquely powerful aurora. In Jupiter's polar cap regions (poleward of the main auroral oval encircling the northern and southern poles), we find here that (1) beams of electrons aligned with the upward magnetic field direction are ever-present with energies extended to the 100s to 1,000s of kilo electron volts and (2) downward magnetic field-aligned electrostatic potentials reaching greater than a million volts occur over broad regions for 80% of the polar cap crossings. For the main auroral oval, we find three distinct zones: designated here as diffuse aurora (DifA), Zone-I (ZI(D)) showing downward electron acceleration to 100s of kiloelectron volts, and Zone-II (ZII(B)) showing bidirectional acceleration with the upward intensities often greater than downward intensities. ZI(D) sometimes shows upward electrostatic potentials reaching 100s of kilovolts and is associated with upward magnetic field-aligned electric currents. ZII(B) sometimes shows downward electrostatic potentials reaching 100s of kilovolts and is associated with downward electric currents. Unexpectedly from Earth studies, ZI(D) and ZII(B) ar...
In July 2016, NASA's Juno mission becomes the first spacecraft to enter polar orbit of Jupiter and venture deep into unexplored polar territories of the magnetosphere. Focusing on these polar regions, we review current understanding of the structure and dynamics of the magnetosphere and summarize the outstanding issues. The Juno mission pro-
We investigate spatial and temporal scales at which wave-particle interaction of Alfvén waves occurs in Jupiter's magnetosphere. We consider electrons, protons, and oxygen ions and study the regions along magnetic flux tubes where the plasma is the densest, that is, the equatorial plasma sheet, and where the plasma is the most dilute, that is, above the ionosphere, where auroral particle acceleration is expected to occur. We find that within a dipole L-shell of roughly 30, the electron inertial length scale in the auroral region is the dominating scale, suggesting that electron Landau damping of kinetic Alfvén waves can play an important role in converting field energy into auroral particle acceleration. This mechanism is consistent with the broadband bidirectional electron distributions frequently observed by Juno. Due to interchange-driven mass transport in Jupiter's magnetosphere, its magnetosphere-ionosphere coupling is expected to be mostly not in local force balance. This might be a key reason for the dominant role of Alfvénically driven stochastic acceleration compared to the less frequently occurring, locally forced-balanced, and thus static mono-energetic unidirectional acceleration. Outside of approximately L = 30, the ion gyroperiod is the dominating scale suggesting that ion cyclotron damping of heavy ions plays a major role in heating magnetospheric plasma. We also present properties of the dispersion relationship and the polarization relationships of kinetic Alfvén waves including the important effects from the relativistic correction due to the displacement current in Ampère's law.
[1] We examined plasma and magnetic field observations from all three Ulysses polar orbits of the Sun to study the properties of the slow and fast solar wind and interplanetary coronal mass ejections (ICMEs). We derived equations to characterize the radial and latitudinal variations for these three types of heliospheric plasma and identify distinguishing features in their spatial variations. Most notably, the slow-wind proton temperature falls less rapidly with distance than does the fast wind, indicating a source of enhanced heating in the low-speed wind. After removing the radial variations from the measurements, only minor latitudinal gradients were identified. The fast wind has now been shown to be only weakly dependent on solar latitude for two successive solar minima. The spatial variations in the ICME properties do not differ significantly from the slow and fast solar wind, although the variability in their parameters is much larger. We also investigated solar cycle variations in the fast polar coronal hole (PCH) flows by comparing their properties measured over Ulysses' 1st and 3rd orbits. While the latitudinal gradients were similar, slight differences were observed in the radial dependence for the proton density and magnetic field strength. Also, a slight reduction in the proton speed at 1 AU, along with more significant decreases in the proton temperature, density, dynamic pressure, and magnetic field strength, was observed for the 3rd orbit relative to that for the 1st. These results are consistent with recent observations of weaker PCH flows for the current solar minimum.
scite is a Brooklyn-based organization that helps researchers better discover and understand research articles through Smart Citations–citations that display the context of the citation and describe whether the article provides supporting or contrasting evidence. scite is used by students and researchers from around the world and is funded in part by the National Science Foundation and the National Institute on Drug Abuse of the National Institutes of Health.
hi@scite.ai
10624 S. Eastern Ave., Ste. A-614
Henderson, NV 89052, USA
Copyright © 2024 scite LLC. All rights reserved.
Made with 💙 for researchers
Part of the Research Solutions Family.