Voyager 2: Energetic Ions and Electrons in the Jovian Magnetosphere

Abstract

The Voyager 2 encounter has enhanced our understanding of earlier results and provided measurements beyond 160 Jupiter radii (RJ) in the magnetotail. Significant fluxes of energetic sulfur and oxygen nuclei (4 to 15 million electron volts per nucleon) of Jovian origin were observed inside 25 RJ, and the gradient in phase space density at 12 RJ indicates that the ions are diffusing inward. A substantially longer time delay versus distance was found for proton flux maxima in the active hemisphere in the magnetotail at Jovicentric longitudes λIII, = 260° to 320° than in the inactive hemisphere at λIII, = 85° to l10°. These delays can be related to the radial motion of plasma expanding into the magnetotail, and differences in the expansion speeds between the active and inactive hemispheres can produce rarefaction regions in trapped particles. It is suggested that the 10-hour modulation of interplanetary Jovian electrons may be associated with the arrival at the dawn magnetopause of a rarefaction region each planetary rotation.