Dynamics of the Jovian Magnetosphere: Combining Insights from Global MHD Simulations and In Situ Measurements From the Juno Spacecraft [article]

Yash Sarkango, University, My
2021
Unlike the terrestrial magnetosphere, which responds strongly to changes in the solar wind and interplanetary magnetic field, Jupiter's magnetosphere depends largely on internal processes related to its strong planetary magnetic field, rapid rotation and presence of internal sources of plasma. The role of external factors, like the solar wind, is considered to be minimal and is not well understood. Observations of the Jovian UV aurora have hinted that it responds to changes in the upstream
more » ... wind dynamic pressure, though the physical processes leading to this enhancement are poorly understood. Solar wind dynamic pressure is also considered to influence the oscillations of Jupiter's current sheet, particularly in the magnetotail. These questions are difficult to resolve using limited and sparse in situ observations. In this work, we use a global magnetohydrodynamics model to study the dynamics of the Jovian magnetosphere. By performing systematic experiments in which we vary the solar wind dynamic pressure, we have analyzed the response of the Jovian magnetosphere and tracked the change in the intensity of corotation-enforcement currents, which are believed to be closely related to the Jovian aurora. Our model predicts that intensity of field-aligned currents in the dayside ionosphere would decrease after a dynamic pressure enhancement due to an increase in the corotation velocity of the plasma in the dayside magnetosphere, especially in the pre-noon sectors. Our model also predicts the release of plasmoids due to reconnection in the magnetotail, and we demonstrate that these plasmoids magnetically connect to the polar regions of the planet, which predominantly connect to open field lines in the solar wind. We also study the response of Jupiter's oscillating magnetotail current sheet to changes in the upstream solar wind dynamic pressure by incorporating a realistic internal field model into our simulations. It was previously thought that solar wind driven compression would reduce the amplitude of the current [...]
doi:10.7302/2795 fatcat:xrzxg7kc4jhxbn6euge7mlisg4