Morphology of the ultraviolet Io footprint emission and its control by Io's location

Abstract

A total of 74 images of the ultraviolet footprint of the lo flux tube (IFT) on Jupiter's upper atmosphere made with the Space Telescope Imaging Spectrograph on board the Hubble Space Telescope have been analyzed to characterize their location, morphology, and brightness distribution. The observations cover a wide range of central meridian Jovian longitudes and Io orbital positions and include north and south footprint emissions. Comparing the location of the IFT with that expected from the VIP4 model of the Jovian magnetic field, we find that the lead angle is generally not significantly different from zero in the System III longitude sector 125°-195°. Instead, the lead angles reach about 8° in the 50° sector, coinciding with a region of possible magnetic anomaly. We observe that the brightness of the main footprint shows intrinsic intensity changes that appear to be controlled by the system III longitude of Io and its position above or below the center of the torus. The size of the primary spot magnetically maps into a region varying from 1 to over 10 Io diameters in Io's orbital plane. Multiple footprints are observed with varying brightness relative to the mean spot. The number of spots is found to increase as Io gets closer to the torus outer edge facing the spots. The separation between the first and second spots is typically 1°-3° of longitude and increases when Io is displaced from the torus center in the direction of the IFT signature. These features confirm that Alfvén waves play an important role and generate energization of precipitated electrons. However, the observed variation of the FUV spot structure with Io's position appears inconsistent with models where reflections of Alfvén wings occur between the torus boundary and Jupiter's ionosphere. Instead, the multiple spots apparently correspond to electron precipitation generated by Alfvén waves reflected inside the plasma torus. Copyright 2006 by the American Geophysical Union.