Open AccessNew models of Jupiter's magnetic field constrained by the Io flux tube footprint
Author(s) -
Connerney J. E. P.,
Acuña M. H.,
Ness N. F.,
Satoh T.
Publication year - 1998
Publication title -
journal of geophysical research: space physics
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.67
H-Index - 298
eISSN - 2156-2202
pISSN - 0148-0227
DOI - 10.1029/97ja03726
Subject(s) - physics , flux tube , field line , jupiter (rocket family) , jovian , geophysics , flux (metallurgy) , computational physics , earth's magnetic field , magnetic dipole , magnetic field , ionosphere , magnetic flux , planet , spacecraft , astrophysics , astronomy , saturn , materials science , quantum mechanics , metallurgy
Spherical harmonic models of the planetary magnetic field of Jupiter are obtained from in situ magnetic field measurements and remote observations of the position of the foot of the Io flux tube in Jupiter's ionosphere. The Io flux tube (IFT) footprint locates the ionospheric footprint of field lines traced from Io's orbital radial distance in the equator plane (5.9 Jovian radii). The IFT footprint is a valuable constraint on magnetic field models, providing “ground truth” information in a region close to the planet and thus far not sampled by spacecraft. The magnetic field is represented using a spherical harmonic expansion of degree and order 4 for the planetary (“internal”) field and an explicit model of the magnetodisc for the field (“external”) due to distributed currents. Models fitting Voyager 1 and Pioneer 11 magnetometer observations and the IFT footprint are obtained by partial solution of the underdetermined inverse problem using generalized inverse techniques. Dipole, quadrupole, octupole, and a subset of higher‐degree and higher‐order spherical harmonic coefficients are determined and compared with earlier models.