Dust in jupiter's magnetosphere: Effect on magnetospheric electrons and ions

Abstract

The interaction of the Jovian energetic radiation belt electrons, and the Jovian plasma, with an ambient dust population is examined. Firstly the distribution of dust, ejected from Io, in the inner magnetosphere is calculated. Using the mass loss in submicron particles of ~13g/sec, which is required to model the intensity and shape of the Jovian ring in the model of Morfill etal. (1980b), it is possible to quantitatively calculate losses of magnetospheric ions and electrons due to direct collisions with charged dust particles as well as multiple Coulomb scattering with resultant losses in the Jovian atmosphere. It is shown that the magnitude and radial dependence of the losses are sufficient to explain the electron measurements, although the possibility that some other process may be more effective cannot be ruled out. The same dust population has, on the other hand, no significant effect on the plasma, which should therefore be transported essentially loss free, except within the Jovian ring, if there are no other processes involved. Comparison with the data shows that loss free transport outside the ring does indeed satisfy the measurement constraints.