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Science 23 November 1979:
Vol. 206. no. 4421, pp. 984 - 987
DOI: 10.1126/science.206.4421.984
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Articles

Voyager 2: Energetic Ions and Electrons in the Jovian Magnetosphere

R. E. VOGT 1, A. C. CUMMINGS 1, T. L. GARRARD 1, N. GEHRELS 1, E. C. STONE 1, J. H. TRAINOR 2, A. W. SCHARDT 2, T. F. CONLON 2, and F. B. MCDONALD 2

1 California Institute of Technology, Pasadena 91125
2 NASA Goddard Space Flight Center, Greenbelt, Maryland 20771

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 lgrIII, = 260° to 320° than in the inactive hemisphere at lgrIII, = 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.

Submitted on September 26, 1979


THIS ARTICLE HAS BEEN CITED BY OTHER ARTICLES:
Plasma Composition in Jupiter's Magnetosphere: Initial Results from the Solar Wind Ion Composition Spectrometer.
J. Geiss, G. Gloeckler, H. Balsiger, L. A. Fisk, A. B. Galvin, F. Gliem, D. C. Hamilton, F. M. Ipavich, S. Livi, U. Mall, et al. (1992)
Science 257, 1535-1539
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