Enhanced whistler-mode emissions: Signatures of interchange motion in the Io torus
Abstract
During the Galileo inbound pass through the Io torus the plasma wave instrument detected intervals of enhanced whistler-mode emissions. Over two of these intervals in the inner torus (L < 6.5), for which energetic particle data is also available, the flux and pitch angle anisotropy of resonant electrons exhibited a simultaneous enhancement consistent with inward adiabatic transport from a source region in the outer torus. The enhanced electromagnetic emissions are interpreted as a modulation of cyclotron whistler-mode instability above the normal marginally stable state of the plasma. This suggests that the enhanced emissions are a sensitive indicator of rapid inward transport associated with interchange motions in the Io torus.
- Publication:
-
Geophysical Research Letters
- Pub Date:
- September 1997
- DOI:
- 10.1029/97GL02020
- Bibcode:
- 1997GeoRL..24.2123B
- Keywords:
-
- Toroidal Plasmas;
- Extraterrestrial Environments;
- Plasma Waves;
- Cyclotron Resonance;
- Electromagnetic Wave Transmission;
- Magnetohydrodynamic Stability;
- Space Probes;
- Astrophysics;
- Planetology: Solid Surface Planets: Interactions with particles and fields;
- Planetology: Fluid Planets: Interactions with particles and fields