Charged-Particle Absorption by IO.
Abstract
The electrostatic field associated with the rotation of Jupiter, relative to the rest frame of the satellite Io, would be distorted if the satellite were an electrical conductor (as the data on Jovian decametric radio emission may require). An idealized two-dimensional model of the distorted electric field configuration, in the limit of a perfectly conducting satellite or satellite ionosphere, has been constructed. This model has been used to trace the adiabatic guiding-center trajectories of energetic protons and electrons across Jupiter's magnetic-field lines, which are taken as rectilinear. The adiabatic trajectories of very low-energy particles (cold-plasma) are thus found to avoid the satellite and escape absorption. In the limit of very high particle energies the adiabatic trajectories are undistorted, and absorption proceeds as if Io were an insulator. Thus, the particle-absorbing characteristics of an electrically conducting Jovian satellite are found to depend on both the species and the energy of the incident particle, and the satellite's particle-absorbing cross section differs systematically from its geometric cross section.
Document Details
- Document Type
- Technical Report
- Publication Date
- Nov 04, 1976
- Accession Number
- ADA033200
Entities
People
- Aharon Eviatar
- Michael Schulz
Organizations
- The Aerospace Corporation