A new view of Jupiter's auroral radio spectrum

W. S. Kurth, M. Imai, G. B. Hospodarsky, D. A. Gurnett, P. Louarn, P. Valek, F. Allegrini, J. E.P. Connerney, B. H. Mauk, S. J. Bolton, S. M. Levin, A. Adriani, F. Bagenal, G. R. Gladstone, D. J. McComas, P. Zarka

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

37 Scopus citations

Abstract

Juno's first perijove science observations were carried out on 27 August 2016. The 90° orbit inclination and 4163 km periapsis altitude provide the first opportunity to explore Jupiter's polar magnetosphere. A radio and plasma wave instrument on Juno called Waves provided a new view of Jupiter's auroral radio emissions from near 10 kHz to ~30 MHz. This frequency range covers the classically named decametric, hectometric, and broadband kilometric radio emissions, and Juno observations showed much of this entire spectrum to consist of V-shaped emissions in frequency-time space with intensified vertices located very close to the electron cyclotron frequency. The proximity of the radio emissions to the cyclotron frequency along with loss cone features in the energetic electron distribution strongly suggests that Juno passed very close to, if not through, one or more of the cyclotron maser instability sources thought to be responsible for Jupiter's auroral radio emissions.

Original languageEnglish (US)
Pages (from-to)7114-7121
Number of pages8
JournalGeophysical Research Letters
Volume44
Issue number14
DOIs
StatePublished - Jul 28 2017

All Science Journal Classification (ASJC) codes

  • Geophysics
  • General Earth and Planetary Sciences

Keywords

  • Jupiter
  • auroral processes
  • radio emissions

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