The structure and dynamics of the Jovian energetic particle distribution

Abstract

We review the recent progress made in unravelling the properties of the energetic particle population in the magnetosphere of Jupiter. The importance of the findings with respect to mechanisms driving the dynamics of the Jovian system is addressed. We concentrate on the implications of phase space density variations for particle loss and source mechanism. Systematic local time and radial dependencies observed in the characteristics of the energetic ion and electron distributions, specifically the particle pitch angle distributions and particle flow pattern are discussed. They possibly bear important information for disentangling those mechanisms responsible for driving the Jovian aurora and for identifying the magnetospheric source populations. Furthermore, we discuss transient particle events in the tail which point to the importance of reconnection for the tail dynamics.