Plasma Transport at Jupiter

Jupiter’s magnetosphere is continually being internally loaded with plasma from its volcanic moon Io. This plasma is cycled out of the planet’s inner magnetospheric regions via two processes. The first is as fast neutrals released via charge exchange. The second process is bulk transport into sink regions in the outer magnetosphere whilst maintaining the conservation of magnetic flux globally. The mechanism for this bulk transport is attributed to the radial interchange process between magnetic flux tubes with centrifugal force driving an instability analogous to the Rayleigh-Taylor instability. This generates a net outward flow of plasma whilst allowing for the return of magnetic flux inwards. However, this process of radial transport is poorly understood. This project aims to improve understanding of plasma transport in Jupiter’s magnetosphere. In particular, it will produce simulations, with adequate spatial and temporal resolution as well as reasonable physical parameters, to determine key properties of the process. These include typical scale lengths of interchange flux tubes, effects of different conductance changes and the importance of Alfvén wave properties to the process. These properties will be examined using various numerical techniques to produce computational simulations of plasma motions. The focus will lie on the combination of an ion Particle-In-Cell code with a fluid electron code in order to produce an improved model of the coupled magnetosphere-ionosphere system at Jupiter.