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Register a new userHow Jupiters Unusual Magnetospheric Topology Structures Its Aurora
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Jupiters bright persistent polar aurora and Earths dark polar region indicate that the planets magnetospheric topologies are very different. High-resolution global simulations show that the reconnection rate at the interface between the interplanetary and jovian magnetic fields is too slow to generate a magnetically open, Earth-like polar cap on the timescale of planetary rotation, resulting in only a small crescent-shaped region of magnetic flux interconnected with the interplanetary magnetic field. Most of the jovian polar cap is threaded by helical magnetic flux that closes within the planetary interior, extends into the outer magnetosphere and piles-up near its dawnside flank where fast differential plasma rotation pulls the field lines sunward. This unusual magnetic topology provides new insights into Jupiters distinctive auroral morphology.
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The most remarkable feature of the ultraviolet auroras at Jupiter is the ever present and almost continuous curtain of bright emissions centered on each magnetic pole and called the main emissions. According to the classical theory, it results from an electric current loop transferring momentum from the Jovian ionosphere to the magnetospheric plasma. However, predictions based on these mainstream models have been recently challenged by observations from Juno and the Hubble Space Telescope. Here we review the main contradictory observations, expose their implications for the theory and discuss promising paths forward.
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We present Rosetta RPC case study from four events at various radial distance, phase angle and local time from autumn 2015, just after perihelion of comet 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko. Pulse like (high amplitude, up to minutes in time) signatures are seen with several RPC instruments in the plasma density (LAP, MIP), ion energy and flux (ICA) as well as magnetic field intensity (MAG). Furthermore the cometocentric distance relative to the electron exobase is seen to be a good organizing parameter for the measured plasma variations. The closer Rosetta is to this boundary, the more pulses are measured. This is consistent with the pulses being filaments of plasma originating from the diamagnetic cavity boundary as predicted by simulations.
We report the observations of an electron vortex magnetic hole corresponding to a new type of coherent structures in the magnetosheath turbulent plasma using the Magnetospheric Multiscale (MMS) mission data. The magnetic hole is characterized by a magnetic depression, a density peak, a total electron temperature increase (with a parallel temperature decrease but a perpendicular temperature increase), and strong currents carried by the electrons. The current has a dip in the center of the magnetic hole and a peak in the outer region of the magnetic hole. The estimated size of the magnetic hole is about 0.23 r{ho}i (~ 30 r{ho}e) in the circular cross-section perpendicular to its axis, where r{ho}i and r{ho}e are respectively the proton and electron gyroradius. There are no clear enhancement seen in high energy electron fluxes, but an enhancement in the perpendicular electron fluxes at ~ 90{deg} pitch angles inside the magnetic hole is seen, implying that the electron are trapped within it. The variations of the electron velocity components Vem and Ven suggest that an electron vortex is formed by trapping electrons inside the magnetic hole in the circular cross-section (in the M-N plane). These observations demonstrate the existence of a new type of coherent structures behaving as an electron vortex magnetic hole in turbulent space plasmas as predicted by recent kinetic simulations.
We have used the high-resolution data of the Magnetospheric Multiscale (MMS) mission dayside phase to identify twenty-one previously unreported encounters with the electron diffusion region (EDR), as evidenced by electron agyrotropy, ion jet reversals, and j dot E greater than 0. Three of the new EDR encounters, which occurred within a one-minute-long interval on November 23rd, 2016, are analyzed in detail. These events, which resulted from a relatively low and oscillating magnetopause velocity, contained large electric fields (several tens to hundreds of milliVolts per meter), crescent-shaped electron velocity phase space densities, large currents (greater than 2 microAmperes per square meter), and Ohmic heating of the plasma (near or exceeding 10 nanoWatts per cubic meter). Because of the slow in-and-out motion of the magnetopause, two of these events show the unprecedented mixture of perpendicular and parallel crescents, indicating the first breaking and reconnecting of solar wind and magnetospheric field lines. An extended list of thirty-two EDR or near-EDR events is also included, and demonstrates a wide variety of observed plasma behavior inside and surrounding the reconnection site.
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