SM31B-2486
Plasma Interaction at Io: Multi-species Hybrid Simulations
Wednesday, 16 December 2015
Poster Hall (Moscone South)
Ondrej Sebek, Astronomical Institute & Institute of Atmospheric Physics, CAS, Prague, Czech Republic, Pavel M. Travnicek, University of California Berkeley, Space Sciences Laboratory, Berkeley, CA, United States, Raymond J Walker, University of California Los Angeles, Earth, Planetary, and Space Sciences, Los Angeles, CA, United States and Petr Hellinger, Organization Not Listed, Washington, DC, United States
Abstract:
We present analysis of global 3-dimensional multi-species hybrid simulations of Io's interaction with Jovian magnetospheric plasma. In the multi-species simulations we assume five species, plasma torus is composed of O+, S+ and S++ ions and ions of SO+, SO2+ are created around Io by ionization of its neutral atmosphere. We consider several ionization processes, namely, charge exchange ionization and photoionization/electron impact ionization. We compare our results to data acquired in situ by the Galileo spacecraft. Our results are in a good qualitative agreement with the in situ magnetic field measurements for five Galileo's flybys around Io. The hybrid model enables to study ion kinetic effects, we investigate magnetic fluctuations triggered by growth of ion cyclotron and/or mirror instabilities of temperature anisotropic pick-up plasma. We also investigate structure of Alfvén wings under different conditions of the interaction.
