Hercules A

Hercules A
Radio-Optical View of the Galaxy Hercules A - Many thanks to: NASA, ESA, S. Baum and C. O'Dea (RIT), R. Perley and W. Cotton (NRAO/AUI/NSF), and the Hubble Heritage Team (STScI/AURA)

Wednesday, August 6, 2014

Periodic bursts of Jovian non-Io decametric radio emission strongly correlated with solar wind ram pressure

Periodic bursts of Jovian non-Io decametric radio emission strongly correlated with solar wind ram pressure

Panchenko, M.; Rucker, H. O.; Farrell, W. M. [ AA(Space Research Institute AAS, Graz, Austria), AB(Space Research Institute AAS, Graz, Austria), AC(NASA Goddard Space Flight Center, Greenbelt, MD, USA)] 2013

http://adsabs.harvard.edu/abs/2013P%26SS...77....3P

With many thanks to Tom Ashcraft, who brought it to my attention, I provide the link to this very interesting paper (free 2 MB pdf):

http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0032063312002528/pdf?md5=d8d302c46ea00bae36dbecb5bdcc6359&pid=1-s2.0-S0032063312002528-main.pdf

 Abstract: "During the years 2000-2011 the radio instruments onboard Cassini, Wind and STEREO spacecraft have recorded a large amount of the Jovian decametric radio emission (DAM). In this paper we report on the analysis of the new type of Jovian periodic radio bursts recently revealed in the decametric frequency range. These bursts, which are non-Io component of DAM, are characterized by a strong periodic reoccurrence over several Jovian days with a period ≈1.5% longer than the rotation rate of the planet's magnetosphere (System III). The bursts are typically observed between 4 and 12 MHz and their occurrence probability has been found to be significantly higher in the sector of Jovian Central Meridian Longitude between 300° and 60° (via 360°). The stereoscopic multispacecraft observations have shown that the radio sources of the periodic bursts radiate in a non-axisymmetric hollow cone-like pattern and sub-corotate with Jupiter remaining active during several planet's rotations. The occurrence of the periodic non-Io DAM bursts is strongly correlated with pulses of the solar wind ram pressure at Jupiter. Moreover the periodic bursts exhibit a tendency to occur in groups every ˜25 days. The polarization measurements have shown that the periodic bursts are right hand polarized radio emission associated with the Northern magnetic hemisphere of Jupiter. We suggest that periodic non-Io DAM bursts may be connected with the interchange instability in Io plasma torus triggered by the solar wind."