Transient small‐scale structure in the main auroral emission at Jupiter

Abstract

AbstractThe main auroral emission at Jupiter results from the ionosphere‐magnetosphere coupling current system associated with the corotation breakdown of iogenic plasma in the current sheet. The morphology and brightness of the main auroral emission are generally suggested to be stable during time intervals of the order of an hour. Here we reveal a transient small‐scale structure in the main emission that is characterized by a localized brightness enhancement close to noon local time. The evolution of this small‐scale structure is investigated in both hemispheres on the basis of far UV images obtained with the Hubble Space Telescope between 1997 and 2007. Our observations indicate that the transient feature vary within a few tens of minutes. As one plausible explanation based on Galileo observations, we suggest that the localized enhancement of the field‐aligned currents associated with the transient structure is due to the shear induced by intermittent inward plasma flow near noon in the equatorial plane.