Ion cyclotron waves at Io: implications for the temporal variation of Io's atmosphere

Abstract

When the flowing torus plasma encounters the upper atmosphere of Jupiter's moon, Io, newly created ions are rapidly accelerated by the motional electric field. Many of these ions are reneutralized and form a spray of fast neutrals that travel far away from Io before being reionized by photoionization and impact. These ions, now far from Io, are unstable to the generation of ion cyclotron waves. These waves in turn act as a mass spectrometer allowing Galileo magnetic measurements to be used to probe the composition of the atmosphere of Io and how it varies in time and in space. We now have six Galileo passes by Io on which we have measurements with sufficient cadence to examine the ion cyclotron waves. One of these passes, on Galileo's 32nd orbit has not been discussed previously. These passes provide sufficient observations to begin to distinguish the sources of variability. We find that while the atmosphere of Io varies temporally throughout the mission, it also has a spatial variation in composition at any instant of time.