P41B-2075
Forecasting Juno Microwave Radiometer Observations of Jupiter's Synchrotron Emission from Data Reconstruction Methods and Theoretical Model
Thursday, 17 December 2015
Poster Hall (Moscone South)
Daniel Santos-Costa1, Scott J Bolton2, Virgil Adumitroaie3, Mike Janssen3, Steve Levin3, Robert J. Sault4, Imke De Pater5 and Chihiro Tao6, (1)Southwest Research Institute San Antonio, San Antonio, TX, United States, (2)Southwest Research Institute, San Antonio, TX, United States, (3)Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, CA, United States, (4)University of Melbourne, Parkville, Australia, (5)University of California Berkeley, Berkeley, CA, United States, (6)IRAP, Toulouse, France
Abstract:
The Juno spacecraft will go into polar orbit after it arrives at Jupiter in mid-2016. Between November 2016 and March 2017, six MicroWave Radiometers will collect information on Jupiter's atmosphere and electron belt. Here we present simulations of MWR observations of the electron belt synchrotron emission, and discuss the features and dynamical behavior of this emission when observations are carried out from inside the radiation zone. We first present our computation method. We combine a three-dimensional tomographic reconstruction method of Earth-based observations and a theoretical model of Jupiter's electron belt to constrain the calculations of the volume emissivity of the synchrotron radiation for any frequency, location in the Jovian inner magnetosphere (radial distance < 4 Rj), and observational direction. Values of the computed emissivity are incorporated into a synchrotron simulator to predict Juno MWR measurements (full sky maps and temperatures) at any time of the mission. Samples of simulated MWR observations are presented and examined for different segments of Juno trajectory. We also present results of our ongoing investigation of the radiation zone distribution around the planet and the sources of variation on different time-scales. We show that a better understanding of the spatial distribution and variability of the electron belt is key to realistically forecast Juno MWR measurements.
