Relating Jupiter's auroral features to magnetospheric sources

Abstract

In order to understand the physical processes that produce the various auroral features we must first understand how the auroral emissions are linked to magnetospheric sources. However, magnetic mapping of Jupiter’s polar auroral emissions to equatorial regions in which source currents are plausibly generated is highly uncertain because the available field models are inaccurate beyond ~30 Jovian radii. We have related auroral features to their magnetospheric sources through a flux equivalence calculation, where we require that the magnetic flux in some specified region at the equator equals the magnetic flux in the area to which it links in the ionosphere. This approach is preferred to tracing model field lines for mapping the auroral polar regions, because the latter method is inaccurate at large distances. Here we present our results, highlighting new mappings for the southern hemisphere, and will compare our mapping to auroral observations from both hemispheres. In particular we relate equatorial regions in which reconnection events have been identified with the locations of polar dawn spots and other possible auroral signatures of tail reconnection. We find that the mapping reproduces several other key auroral features. The polar auroral active region maps to just outside the dayside magnetopause, a region that we identify as the Jovian polar cusp. The polar auroral swirl region maps to open tail field lines and is interpreted as the Jovian polar cap. These interpretations are consistent with some earlier predictions based on auroral observations. We identify the boundary between open and closed flux in the ionosphere, which previously was not well defined. We show that the magnetic flux through the regions interpreted as the polar caps in both hemispheres closely matches the estimated flux through the tail lobe, consistent with the suggestion that this area maps to open field lines