Loss of Energetic Ions Comprising the Ring Current Populations of Jupiter's Middle and Inner Magnetosphere

Abstract

AbstractThe low‐altitude, polar orbit of the Juno mission allows the Jupiter Energetic Particle Detector Instrument to view into, and resolve, the loss cone of energetic ions comprising the low‐altitude extension of Jupiter's ring current ions. For regions mapping from just inside Ganymede's orbit to well beyond Ganymede's orbit, energetic ions (>50 keV H+ and >130 keV Oxygen and Sulfur ions) are strongly scattered into the loss cone and lost to the magnetosphere at the “strong diffusion limit” at essentially all times. We conclude, by arguing against magnetic curvature scattering, that the cause is waves, perhaps associated with Alfvénic variations previously documented in this equatorial region. Scattering is generally weak or nonexistent near the orbits of the moons Europa and Io, except for the regions just downstream of the corotating plasmas. For Io, we sometimes observe moderate, but not saturated, scattering within roughly 60° downstream. Significantly, scattering is weak or nonexistent just upstream of Io's position, an asymmetry echoed in some previous wave observations. A preliminary accounting of the total (longitude‐averaged) scattering losses near Io's orbit yields loss rates of order 4%–5% of the strong diffusion limit for H+ and 5%–7% for heavy ions (O + S). We conclude that near Io's orbit, charge exchange losses likely dominate over scattering losses for heavy ions and for the lower energy H+ ions (roughly <200 keV).