Numerical Simulations of the Jovian Magnetosphere: Influence of the Solar Wind

The Earth and the jovian magnetospheres are shaped by the solar wind, displaying gigantic magnetic tails on the night side. Due to the intrinsic variability of the solar wind, the global shape of the Earth magnetosphere fluctuates with time; the influence of the solar wind velocity, density, pressure and other characteristics were extensively studied and are now more or less understood. On the other hand, the interactions between the jovian magnetosphere and the solar wind are still poorly comprehended. The extremely strong internal magnetic field, the fast rotation and the presence of the Io torus (included in our model by the mean of a source term) are specific to Jupiter and should lead to a magnetosphere hardly comparable with the magnetosphere of the Earth. In order to study this phenomena, we performed three dimensional numerical simulations of the jovian magnetosphere in the framework of magnetohydrodynamics. We present here an extensive parameters study showing the response of the jovian magnetosphere to different solar wind parameters.