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Supersonic winds in Jupiter's aurorae

Nature volume 399, pages 121–124 (1999)Cite this article

Abstract

Jupiter has a giant magnetosphere that is coupled to the planet's upper atmosphere; as the planet rotates, its magnetic field drags a dense ionized equatorial sheet of plasma, which must interact with the upper atmosphere. Jupiter's aurorae are much more powerful1,2 than the Earth's, and cause significant local heating of the upper atmosphere. Auroral electrojets—ion winds that race around Jupiter's auroral ovals—play a key role in theoretical models of how Jupiter's rotational energy is transferred to the plasma sheet3,4 and how winds may transport energy from auroral heating to lower latitudes5,6,7. But there has hitherto been no direct observational evidence for the existence of such electrojets. Here we report observations of electrojets that have winds approaching or in excess of the local speed of sound. The energy produced by these electrojets could heat the whole upper atmosphere, if the auroral regions couple efficiently with the rest of the planet.

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Figure 1: Series of CVF (1.4% spectral resolution) images of the northern auroral region of Jupiter.
Figure 2: Comparison of CSHELL spectral images from 14 and 16 July 1996, and 8 August 1997.
Figure 3: Line-of-sight velocity shifts and intensity profiles for the spectral images shown in Fig. 1 for the H+3 ν2 Q(1−) line.

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Acknowledgements

N.A. was a visiting astronomer on the NASA Infrared Telescope Facility, operated by the Institute for Astronomy, University of Hawaii, on behalf of NASA. We thank staff at the NASA IRTF for assistance. In particular, we thank J. Rayner for help in dealing with issues related to CSHELL. This work was supported by the UK Particle Physics and Astronomy Research Council.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Physics and Astronomy, University College London, Gower Street, WC1E 6BT, London, UK

    Daniel Rego, Nicholas Achilleos, Tom Stallard & Steve Miller

  2. Institut d'Astrophysique Spatiale, UMR-CNRS 120, Batiment 121, Université de Paris XI, Orsay, 91405, Cedex, France

    Renée Prangé

  3. Space and Atmospheric Physics, Imperial College, London, SW7 2BZ, UK

    Michele Dougherty

  4. Institute for Astronomy, University of Hawaii, Woodlawn Drive, Honolulu, 96822, Hawaii, USA

    Robert D. Joseph

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  1. Daniel Rego
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  2. Nicholas Achilleos
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  5. Renée Prangé
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Correspondence to Steve Miller.

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Rego, D., Achilleos, N., Stallard, T. et al. Supersonic winds in Jupiter's aurorae. Nature 399, 121–124 (1999). https://doi.org/10.1038/20121

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