The Jupiter Radio Bursts

Like the strong non-thermal radio bursts from the solar corona and from the earth’s magnetosphere, the Jupiter radio bursts are characterized by their duration which may be from milliseconds to seconds, and by their complex structure on the frequency-time plane. In addition, they exhibit a variety of periodicities in their rate of occurrence, the primary one of which is associated with the rotation of Jupiter. The smaller physical scale of Jupiter compared with the Sun naturally leads to a much shorter time scale in the various radio phenomena and it is only recently that suitable equipment has become available to permit the detailed investigation of the dynamic spectra of the bursts with the necessary high time resolution of the order of 10^-3sec (Ellis 1973a,b,c). As in the case of the solar radio bursts, a number of distinct types of dynamic spectra are observed and they provide a convenient basis for classification.