Soft electrons as a possible heat source for Jupiter's thermosphere
Abstract
The 850 K exospheric temperature inferred for Jupiter from the radio-occultation experiments on Pioneers 10 and 11 is shown to imply a heat input of 0.25-0.5 erg cm -2s -1. One possible source of this energy is precipitation of electrons from a warm plasma (temperature corresponding to energies of the order of 30-500 eV). A mechanism is suggested wherein the presence of this plasma can be accounted for by centrifugal acceleration and adiabatic compression of ionospheric electrons and protons. Present ideas of the source strength of ionospheric plasma, however, give heating rates that are too small by 1-2 orders of magnitude, although inferences from direct plasma measurements suggest that the required plasma is indeed present.
- Publication:
-
Planetary and Space Science
- Pub Date:
- September 1977
- DOI:
- 10.1016/0032-0633(77)90035-6
- Bibcode:
- 1977P&SS...25..817H
- Keywords:
-
- Electron Energy;
- Heat Sources;
- Jupiter Atmosphere;
- Thermosphere;
- Atmospheric Heating;
- Atmospheric Physics;
- Ionospheric Temperature;
- Planetary Ionospheres;
- Plasma Physics;
- Radio Occultation;
- Lunar and Planetary Exploration