Modeling of the Jovian Magnetosphere

Abstract

Abstract. This paper presents a global model of the Jovian magnetosphere which is valid not only in the equatorial plane and near the planet, as most of the existing models are, but also at high latitudes and in the outer regions of the magnetosphere. The model includes the Jovian dipole, magnetodisc, and tail current system. The tail currents are combined with the magnetopause closure currents. All inner magnetospheric magnetic field sources are screened by the magnetopause currents. It guarantees a zero normal magnetic field component for the inner magnetospheric field at the whole magnetopause surface. By changing magnetospheric scale (subsolar distance), the model gives a possibility to study the solar wind influence on the magnetospheric structure and auroral activity. A dependence of the magnetospheric size on the solar wind dynamic pressure p sw (proportional to p −0.23 sw ) is obtained. It is a stronger dependence than in the case of the Earth's magnetosphere (p −1/6 sw ). The model of Jupiter's magnetospheric which is presented is a unique one, as it allows one to study the solar wind and interplanetary magnetic field (IMF) effects.

Dependence of the open-closed field line boundary in Saturn's ionosphere on both the IMF and solar wind dynamic pressure: comparison with the UV auroral oval observed by the HST

“…The ring current parameters are similar to those derived by Connerney et al (1983) using Voyager1 data, for which R ss ≈23-24 R s , while the distance of the inner edge of the tail current is determined from the typical ratio R 2 /R ss ≈0.8 (e.g. Alexeev et al, 2003Alexeev et al, , 2006Alexeev and Belenkaya, 2005;Belenkaya et al, 2006b). These kronian parameter sets are summarized in Table 1 (the dipole tilt angle being ≈25 • in all cases).…”

“…Alexeev et al, 2003;Belenkaya, 2004;Alexeev and Belenkaya, 2005). The mag- netopause is taken to be a paraboloid of revolution about the Saturn-Sun line, given in KSM coordinates by where R ss is again the sub-solar distance of the magnetopause.…”

Magnetospheric mapping of the dayside UV auroral oval at Saturn using simultaneous HST images, Cassini IMF data, and a global magnetic field model

“…For simplicity the current sheets in the model are taken to be of zero thickness, compared with observed thicknesses typically of a few R S (e.g., Kellett et al, 2009), which should have little effect on the field line mapping between ionosphere and magnetosphere. Further discussion of the paraboloid model current systems and magnetic fields may be found, e.g., in Alexeev and Belenkaya (2005). The effect of the IMF inside the magnetosphere is given by adding the uniform field k S B IMF , where B IMF is the IMF vector and 0 ≤ k S ≤ 1 is the magnetosphere penetration coefficient.…”

Open and partially closed models of the solar wind interaction with outer planet magnetospheres: the case of Saturn

“…Grodent et al (2003), Pallier and Prangé (2001), and Vogt et al (2011) suggested that the so-called auroral "swirl" region coincides with the region of open ionospheric flux, which observations show to occupy approximately one-third of the area inside Jupiter's main oval. This interpretation was supported by the calculations of Belenkaya et al (2006a) using the paraboloid model of Jupiter's magnetospheric magnetic field (see Alexeev and Belenkaya, 2005, and references therein) with an interplanetary magnetic field (IMF) value ∼ 0.5 nT, which is characteristic of Jupiter's solar wind environment. The breakdown of Jupiter's magnetospheric plasma rotation in the equatorial magnetosphere creates strong upward field-aligned currents flowing from the ionosphere (Hill, 2001; to the inner region of Jupiter's magnetodisc located at the Alfvén radius (Alexeev and Belenkaya, 2005;Belenkaya and Khodachenko, 2012).…”