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First Report of Electron Measurements During a Europa Footprint Tail Crossing by Juno

Authors :
Frederic Allegrini
Robert Ebert
R. J. Wilson
G. R. Gladstone
Thomas K. Greathouse
Vincent Hue
George Clark
P. Louarn
Barry Mauk
George Hospodarsky
Fran Bagenal
Scott Bolton
John E. P. Connerney
Jamey Szalay
Masafumi Imai
Joachim Saur
P. W. Valek
William S. Kurth
Ali Sulaiman
D. J. McComas
Institut de recherche en astrophysique et planétologie (IRAP)
Université Toulouse III - Paul Sabatier (UT3)
Université de Toulouse (UT)-Université de Toulouse (UT)-Institut national des sciences de l'Univers (INSU - CNRS)-Observatoire Midi-Pyrénées (OMP)
Institut de Recherche pour le Développement (IRD)-Université Toulouse III - Paul Sabatier (UT3)
Université de Toulouse (UT)-Université de Toulouse (UT)-Institut national des sciences de l'Univers (INSU - CNRS)-Centre National d'Études Spatiales [Toulouse] (CNES)-Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique (CNRS)-Météo-France -Institut de Recherche pour le Développement (IRD)-Institut national des sciences de l'Univers (INSU - CNRS)-Centre National d'Études Spatiales [Toulouse] (CNES)-Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique (CNRS)-Météo-France -Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique (CNRS)
Source :
Geophysical Research Letters, Geophysical Research Letters, 2020, 47, ⟨10.1029/2020GL089732⟩
Publication Year :
2020
Publisher :
American Geophysical Union (AGU), 2020.

Abstract

International audience; We report the first in situ observations of electron measurements at a Europa footprint tail (FPT) crossing in the auroral region. During its 12th science perijove pass, Juno crossed magnetic field lines connected to Europa's FPT. We find that electrons in the range ~0.4 to ~25 keV, with a characteristic energy of 3.6 ± 0.5 keV, precipitate into Jupiter's atmosphere to create the footprint aurora. The energy flux peaks at ~36 mW/m2, while the peak ultraviolet (UV) brightness is estimated at 37 kR. We estimate the peak electron density and temperature to be 17.3 cm-3 and 1.8 ± 0.1 keV, respectively. Using magnetic flux shell mapping, we estimate that the radial width of the interaction at Europa's orbit spans roughly 3.6 ± 1.0 Europa radii. In contrast to typical Io FPT crossings, the instrument background caused by penetrating energetic radiation (> ~5-10 MeV electrons) increased during the Europa FPT crossing.

Details

ISSN :
19448007 and 00948276
Volume :
47
Database :
OpenAIRE
Journal :
Geophysical Research Letters
Accession number :
edsair.doi.dedup.....0d6993f41474e59d49141426dd9c4bd2
Full Text :
https://doi.org/10.1029/2020gl089732