Energetic charged particle characteristics of Jupiter's middle-to-outer magnetosphere: Observations from Juno/JEDI

NASA's Juno spacecraft spends the majority its 53.5 day orbit in the middle-to-outer (>30 Jovian radii) magnetospheric region sampling the near- and off-magnetic equatorial regions in the dawn and pre-dawn local time sectors. In this region, the Jupiter Energetic particle Detector Instrument (JEDI) on board Juno observes temporally and/or spatially varying dynamics such as aperiodic bursts of energetic electrons (>25 keV) that have large intensity enhancements, but are short lived (<10s of minutes). Associated with these events are often, but not always, bi-directional field-aligned pitch angle distributions that are suggestive of remnant auroral activity. In some rare cases, uni-directional electron beams are seen that are reminiscent of the uni-directional electron beams discovered of Jupiter's polar auroral region. As Juno dips into and out of the plasma sheet region every five to ten hours it is fascinating that rarely are any two encounters the same, from an energetic particle perspective. It appears that both small scale and large scale reconfigurations are constantly changing the nature of the particles in this region. In addition, close inspection of the scale sizes and timing between energetic electron events suggests they may actually be chaotic in nature. It is intriguing to ponder how an internally driven system largely controlled by its fast but very steady periodic rotation can be a host for such processes. Here we present energetic charge particle observations of the middle-to-outer magnetosphere from Juno's approach until present. We will discuss their characteristics and links to physical processes such as auroral activity and plasma sheet dynamics.