Rights statement: ©2017. The Authors. This is an open access article under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits use, distribution and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.
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Available under license: CC BY: Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License
Final published version
Licence: CC BY: Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License
Research output: Contribution to Journal/Magazine › Journal article › peer-review
Research output: Contribution to Journal/Magazine › Journal article › peer-review
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TY - JOUR
T1 - Characterization of Jupiter's secondary auroral oval and its response to hot plasma injections
AU - Gray, Rebecca
AU - Badman, Sarah Victoria
AU - Woodfield, E. E.
AU - Tao, C.
N1 - ©2017. The Authors. This is an open access article under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits use, distribution and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.
PY - 2017/6/28
Y1 - 2017/6/28
N2 - We present Jovian auroral observations from the 2014 January Hubble Space Telescope (HST) campaign and characterize the auroral second oval feature with particular attention to the response to hot plasma injections. The location of the second oval feature lies between the Ganymede and Europa moon footprint contours between 150 and 240° system III longitude, corresponding to a source in the inner magnetosphere between 9 and 13 RJ. At the examined longitudes, this is in the same region of 11–16 RJ known as the pitch angle distribution boundary, beyond which electrons are thought to be scattered into a field-aligned configuration and cause auroral precipitation. The feature is enhanced in both brightness and longitudinal spread 1–3 days after large hot plasma injections. The precipitating electrons have a higher-energy and lower flux than the electrons generating large injection signatures. We suggest that wave-particle interactions are responsible for the scattering of electrons in this region. We also suggest that the plasma injections can act as a temperature anisotropy and particle source to enhance electron scattering into the aurora and the brightness of the second oval feature. Changes to the magnetic field topology around an injection may also generate shear Alfvén waves and therefore accelerate electrons parallel to the magnetic field resulting in precipitation.
AB - We present Jovian auroral observations from the 2014 January Hubble Space Telescope (HST) campaign and characterize the auroral second oval feature with particular attention to the response to hot plasma injections. The location of the second oval feature lies between the Ganymede and Europa moon footprint contours between 150 and 240° system III longitude, corresponding to a source in the inner magnetosphere between 9 and 13 RJ. At the examined longitudes, this is in the same region of 11–16 RJ known as the pitch angle distribution boundary, beyond which electrons are thought to be scattered into a field-aligned configuration and cause auroral precipitation. The feature is enhanced in both brightness and longitudinal spread 1–3 days after large hot plasma injections. The precipitating electrons have a higher-energy and lower flux than the electrons generating large injection signatures. We suggest that wave-particle interactions are responsible for the scattering of electrons in this region. We also suggest that the plasma injections can act as a temperature anisotropy and particle source to enhance electron scattering into the aurora and the brightness of the second oval feature. Changes to the magnetic field topology around an injection may also generate shear Alfvén waves and therefore accelerate electrons parallel to the magnetic field resulting in precipitation.
U2 - 10.1002/2017JA024214
DO - 10.1002/2017JA024214
M3 - Journal article
VL - 122
SP - 6415
EP - 6429
JO - Journal of Geophysical Research: Space Physics
JF - Journal of Geophysical Research: Space Physics
SN - 2169-9402
IS - 6
ER -