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Subaru Seminars are
usually held in Room 104 of the Hilo Base Facility, adjacent
to the main lobby. Everyone is welcome to attend. If you would like to
give a seminar, please contact Subaru seminar organizers
(Hyewon Suh, Tae-Soo Pyo, Nagayoshi Ohashi)
by email : sseminar_at_subaru.naoj.org (please change"_at" to @).
October 8, Tuesday, 11am in 104A
A brightening of Jupiter's auroral CH4 emission during a solar-wind event, as measured by Subaru-COMICS
James Sinclair (JPL)
Enhanced mid-infrared emission from CH4 and other stratospheric hydrocarbons has been observed coincident with Jupiter’s ultraviolet auroral emission in previous work. This suggests Jupiter’s stratosphere and external magnetosphere and solar-wind environment are coupled, however, the exact nature of this coupling remains unknown. A time series of Subaru-COMICS 7.8-micron images of Jupiter will be presented, which demonstrate that both the morphology and magnitude of Jupiter’s auroral CH4 emission varied in relation to external solar-wind conditions. The southern auroral CH4 emission increased by 3.8 K in brightness temperature and the northern auroral CH4 emission exhibited a dusk-side brightening after the arrival of a solar-wind compression at Jupiter. These results suggest the solar-wind compression perturbed the jovian magnetosphere and ultimately deposited energetic particles as deep as the neutral stratosphere and modified either the thermal structure, abundance of CH4 or population of energy states of CH4. Such a coupling of the polar stratosphere and external magnetosphere/solar-wind environment could be ubiquitous in Jupiter-like exoplanets.