The complex behavior of the satellite footprints at Jupiter: the result of universal processes?

At Jupiter, some auroral emissions are directly related to the electromagnetic interaction between the moons Io, Europa and Ganymede on one hand and the rapidly rotating magnetospheric plasma on the other hand. Out of the three, the Io footprint is the brightest and the most studied. Present in each hemisphere, it is made of at least three different spots and an extended trailing tail. The variability of the brightness of the spots as well as their relative location has been tentatively explained with a combination of Alfvén waves’ partial reflections on density gradients and bi-directional electron acceleration at high latitude. Should this scenario be correct, then the other footprints should also show the same behavior. Here we show that all footprints are, at least occasionally, made of several spots and they all display a tail. We also show that these spots share many characteristics with those of the Io footprint (i.e. some significant variability on timescales of 2-3 minutes). Additionally, we present some Monte-Carlo simulations indicating that the tails are also due to Alfvén waves electron acceleration rather than quasi-static electron acceleration. Even if some details still need clarification, these observations strengthen the scenario proposed for the Io footprint and thus indicate that these processes are universal. In addition, we will present some early results from Juno-UVS concerning the location and morphology of the footprints during the first low-altitude observations of the polar aurorae. These observations, carried out in previously unexplored longitude ranges, should either confirm or contradict our understanding of the footprints

Anomalous OI-989 Å intensity profile: solving an old mystery.

Sounding rocket measurements conducted in 1988 under high solar activity conditions had revealed that the intensity of the thermospheric OI emission at 989 Å presents an anomalous vertical profile. Observation presents an intensity much higher than what can be expected compared with theoretical results including the photochemical sources of excited oxygen and the radiative transfer of the photons of the OI-989 sextuplet especially above the exobase. Attempts were conducted to clarify the discrepancy by including the non-thermal O(3P) population that appears around the exobase and higher, and that can scatter Doppler-shifted photons of the line profile farther from the rest wavelength. All attempts based on detail modeling of the photochemical processes and radiative transfer revealed unable to account for the discrepancy. Recently the FUV and EUV solar flux has been obtained at very high spectral resolution with the SOHO-SUMER instrument, revealing a significant solar oxygen emission at 989 Å, i.e. a source of photons that had never been accounted for before. In this study, we compute the radiative transfer of the OI-989 Å multiplet including the photochemical sources of excited oxygen, the scattering of incident solar photons and the effect of non-thermal atoms. We find a good agreement with the previous sounding rocket observation, solving the old mystery. We also compare the model simulations with the observations of the STP-78 satellite to better determine the relative importance of the various parameters at work in the radiative transfer of the OI-989 Å multiplet

Abel inversion method for cometary atmospheres.

Remote observation of cometary atmospheres produces a measurement of the cometary emissions integrated along the line of sight joining the observing instrument and the gas of the coma. This integration is the so-called Abel transform of the local emission rate. We develop a method specifically adapted to the inversion of the Abel transform of cometary emissions, that retrieves the radial profile of the emission rate of any unabsorbed emission, under the hypothesis of spherical symmetry of the coma. The method uses weighted least squares fitting and analytical results. A Tikhonov regularization technique is applied to reduce the possible effects of noise and ill-conditioning, and standard error propagation techniques are implemented. Several theoretical tests of the inversion techniques are carried out to show its validity and robustness, and show that the method is only weakly dependent on any constant offset added to the data, which reduces the dependence of the retrieved emission rate on the background subtraction. We apply the method to observations of three different comets observed using the TRAPPIST instrument: 103P/ Hartley 2, F6/ Lemmon and A1/ Siding spring. We show that the method retrieves realistic emission rates, and that characteristic lengths and production rates can be derived from the emission rate for both CN and C2 molecules. We show that the emission rate derived from the observed flux of CN emission at 387 nm and from the C2 emission at 514.1 nm of comet Siding Spring both present an easily-identifiable shoulder that corresponds to the separation between pre- and post-outburst gas. As a general result, we show that diagnosing properties and features of the coma using the emission rate is easier than directly using the observed flux. We also determine the parameters of a Haser model fitting the inverted data and fitting the line-of-sight integrated observation, for which we provide the exact analytical expression of the line-of-sight integration of the Haser model

SPICAM observations and modeling of Mars aurorae

International audienceMartian aurorae have been detected with the SPICAM instrument on board Mars Express both in the nadir and the limb viewing modes. In this study, we focus on three limb observations to quantify both the altitudes and the intensities of the auroral emissions. The CO (a3Π - X1Σ) Cameron bands between 190 and 270 nm, the CO (A1Π - X1Σ+) Fourth Positive system (CO 4P) between 135 and 170 nm, the CO2 (B2Σu+ - X2Πg) doublet at 289 nm, the OI at 297.2 nm and the 130.4 nm OI triplet emissions have been identified in the spectra and in the time variations of the signals. The intensities of these auroral emissions have been quantified and the altitude of the strongest emission of the CO Cameron bands has been estimated to be 137±27 km. The locations of these auroral events have also been determined and correspond to the statistical boundary of open-closed magnetic field lines, in cusp-like structures. The observed altitudes of the auroral emissions are reproduced by a Monte-Carlo model of electron transport in the Martian thermosphere for mono-energetic electrons between 60 and 200 eV.No correlation between electron fluxes measured in the upper thermosphere and nadir auroral intensity has been found. Here, we simulate auroral emissions observed both at the limb and at the nadir using electron energy spectra simultaneously measured with the ASPERA-3/ELS instrument. The simulated altitudes are in very good agreement with the observations. We find that predicted vertically integrated intensities for the various auroral emissions are overestimated, probably as a consequence of the inclination and curvature of the magnetic field line threading the aurora. However, the relative brightness of the CO2+emissions is in good agreement with the observations