Io's magnetospheric interaction: an MHD model with day-night asymmetry

In this paper we present the results of an improved three-dimensional MHD model for Io's interaction with Jupiter's magnetosphere. We have included the day-night asymmetry into the spatial distribution of our mass-loading, which allowed us to reproduce several smaller features of the Galileo December 1995 data set. The calculation is performed using our newly modified description of the pick-up processes that accounts for the effects of the corotational electric field existing in the Jovian magnetosphere. This change in the formulation of the source terms for the MHD equations resulted in significant improvements in the comparison with the Galileo measurements. We briefly discuss the limitations of our model and possible future improvements. (C) 2001 Elsevier Science Ltd. All rights reserved.