Dust in Jupiter's magnetosphere: Time variations

Abstract

The stability to temporal variations of the Jovian dust ring is a property which may soon be measured, and can in principle give a clue as to the origin of the ring. In this analysis fluctuations in the ring topology and intensity are determined over various relevant time scales, assuming the origin model proposed by Johnson etal. (1980) and Morfill etal. (1980a, b) to apply. It is concluded that the ring is a quasi-permanent and quasi-stable feature of the Jovian system.