The plasma wave environment of Europa

Kurth, W. S.; Gurnett, D. A.; Persoon, A. M.; Roux, A.; Bolton, S. J.; Alexander, C.

doi:10.1016/s0032-0633(00)00156-2

Cited by 63 publications

(78 citation statements)

References 28 publications

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“…56). Similarly, measurements by the Galileo Plasma Wave Spectrometer (PWS) during Europa flybys yielded considerably higher electron densities (57). The values shown in Fig.…”

Section: Interpretation and Discussionmentioning

confidence: 65%

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Orbital apocenter is not a sufficient condition for HST/STIS detection of Europa’s water vapor aurora

Roth

Retherford

Saur

et al. 2014

Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. U.S.A.

113

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Significance Images of Europa’s UV aurora taken by the Hubble Space Telescope in December 2012 have revealed local hydrogen and oxygen emissions in intensity ratios that identify the source as electron impact excitation of water molecules. The existence of water vapor plumes as a source for the detected localized water vapor and the possible accessibility of subsurface liquid water reservoirs at these locations have important implications for the exploration of Europa’s potentially habitable environments. The observations reported here tested whether orbital position near the apocenter is an essential requirement for plume activity. Only an upper limit on the amount of water vapor was obtained. Orbital position is therefore not a sufficient condition for detecting plumes and they may be episodic events.

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“…56). Similarly, measurements by the Galileo Plasma Wave Spectrometer (PWS) during Europa flybys yielded considerably higher electron densities (57). The values shown in Fig.…”

Section: Interpretation and Discussionmentioning

confidence: 65%

“…6 are taken from figure 5 of ref. 57 for times at or before closest approach when the plasma density appears to be undisturbed by the interaction with Europa. The exceptionally high density measured for flyby E12 of more than 600 cm −3 is off the vertical range and this case is discussed at the end of this section.…”

Section: Interpretation and Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Orbital apocenter is not a sufficient condition for HST/STIS detection of Europa’s water vapor aurora

Roth

Retherford

Saur

et al. 2014

Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. U.S.A.

113

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“…In this coordinate system y W =y 0,B , and the offset of the AW by the induced magnetic field is given by y off . The initial value of θ A is unknown, but can be estimated using the PWS electron density (Gurnett et al, 1992;Kurth et al, 2001) and an assumed average ion mass (see Table 4). After rotation, the equation to be solved for the entrance and the Table 3.…”

Section: Fitting the Alfvén Wing Ellipsementioning

confidence: 99%

“…The mass density N A agrees well with the ranges given for ρ m , with E17 slightly exceeding the maximum quoted value . We use the electron density (Kurth et al, 2001), determined from the upper hybrid frequency provided by the Plasma Wave System (PWS) (Gurnett et al, 1992), and a charge-per-ion of 1.5 (Bagenal, 1994;Kivelson et al, 2004) to calculate the average ion mass. The results can be found in Table 4.…”

Section: Fitting the Alfvén Wing Ellipsementioning

confidence: 99%

Europa's Alfvén wing: shrinkage and displacement influenced by an induced magnetic field

2007

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Abstract. The Galileo magnetometer data are used to investigate the structure of the Alfvén wing during three flybys of Europa. The presence of an induced magnetic field is shown to shrink the cross section of the Alfvén wing and offset it along the direction radial to Jupiter. Both the shrinkage and the offset depend on the strength of the induced field. The entry and exit points of the spacecraft into and out of the Alfvén wings are modeled to determine the angle between the wings and the background magnetic field. Tracing of the Alfvén characteristics in a model magnetic field consisting of Jupiter's background field and an induced field in Europa produces an offset and shrinking of the Alfvén wing consistent with the geometric modeling. Thus we believe that the Alfvén wing properties have been determined correctly. The Alfvén wing angle is directly proportional to the local Alfvén velocity, and is thus a probe for the local plasma density. We show that the inferred plasma density can be understood in terms of the electron density measured by the plasma wave experiment. When Europa is located in the Jovian plasma sheet the derived mass-per-charge exceeds the previous estimates, which is a result of increased pickup of sputtered ions near the moon. The estimated rate of O + 2 pickup agrees well with the results from numerical models.

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“…Evidence for the presence of isolated bipolar electrostatic structures in the solar wind is more recent: Mangeney et al (1999) first reported the observation of such structures in the free solar wind and Williams et al (2006) showed some examples associated to an interplanetary shock. Finally, they were also observed in the vicinity of the magnetosphere of Europa (Kurth et al, 2001) and Saturn (Williams et al, 2006).…”

Section: Multipolar Electrostatic Structuresmentioning

confidence: 85%

Plasma waves above the ion cyclotron frequency in the solar wind: a review on observations

Briand

2009

Nonlin. Processes Geophys.

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The plasma wave environment of Europa

Cited by 63 publications

References 28 publications

Orbital apocenter is not a sufficient condition for HST/STIS detection of Europa’s water vapor aurora

Orbital apocenter is not a sufficient condition for HST/STIS detection of Europa’s water vapor aurora

Europa's Alfvén wing: shrinkage and displacement influenced by an induced magnetic field

Plasma waves above the ion cyclotron frequency in the solar wind: a review on observations

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