Publication Date:
2017-05-26
Description:
We present ground-based observations of Jupiter's H 3 + aurorae over four nights in April 2016 while the Juno spacecraft was monitoring the upstream interplanetary magnetic field. High-precision maps of auroral H 3 + densities, temperatures, and radiances reveal significant variabilities in those parameters, with regions of enhanced density and emission accompanied by reduced temperature. Juno magnetometer data, combined with solar wind propagation models, suggest that a shock may have impacted Jupiter in the days preceding the observation interval but that the solar wind was quiescent thereafter. Auroral H 3 + temperatures reveal a downward temporal trend, consistent with a slowly cooling upper atmosphere, such as might follow a period of shock recovery. The brightest H 3 + emissions are from the end of the period, 23 April. A lack of definitive signatures in the upstream interplanetary magnetic field lends supporting evidence to the possibility that this brightening event may have been driven by internal magnetospheric processes.
Print ISSN:
0094-8276
Electronic ISSN:
1944-8007
Topics:
Geosciences
,
Physics
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