4.7 Article

Electron beams and loss cones in the auroral regions of Jupiter

Journal

GEOPHYSICAL RESEARCH LETTERS
Volume 44, Issue 14, Pages 7131-7139

Publisher

AMER GEOPHYSICAL UNION
DOI: 10.1002/2017GL073180

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Funding

  1. NASA
  2. STFC [ST/P000541/1] Funding Source: UKRI
  3. Science and Technology Facilities Council [ST/P000541/1] Funding Source: researchfish

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We report on the first observations of 100 eV to 100 keV electrons over the auroral regions of Jupiter by the Jovian Auroral Distributions Experiment (JADE) on board the Juno mission. The focus is on the regions that were magnetically connected to the main auroral oval. Amongst the most remarkable features, JADE observed electron beams, mostly upward going but also some downward going in the south, at latitudes from similar to 69 degrees to 72 degrees and similar to -66 degrees to -70 degrees corresponding to M shells (M for magnetic) from similar to 18 to 54 and similar to 28 to 61, respectively. The beams were replaced by upward loss cones at lower latitudes. There was no evidence of strongly accelerated downward electrons analogous to the auroral inverted Vs at Earth. Rather, the presence of upward loss cones suggests a diffuse aurora process. The energy spectra resemble tails of distributions or power laws (suggestive of a stochastic acceleration process) but can also have some clear enhancements or even peaks generally between 1 and 10 keV. Electron intensities change on timescales of a second or less at times implying that auroral structures can be of the order of a few tens of kilometers.

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