Corotation of Jupiter's three-dimensional magnetosphere

Abstract

Abstract An understanding of the corotational characteristics of planetary magnetospheres is essential for a complete description and comprehension of the plasma physics of these astrophysical objects. The corotational properties of Jupiter's magnetosphere have been revealed by data from the Voyager and Ulysses spacecraft. The near-equatorial hot plasma sheet in the outer magnetosphere corotates with up to half the planetary corotation speed; however, in the high latitude dusk magnetosphere, the corotation is significantly less than on the dayside. At high Jovian latitudes, the magnetosphere is dominated by intense fluxes of largely field aligned and counter-streaming ions and electrons. Analysis of these energetic particle measurements indicates that the rotational anisotropy of the duskside, high latitude magnetosphere is significantly less than the anisotropy measured in the near equatorial dayside at a comparable radius from Jupiter.