Simulations of the auroral signatures of Jupiter’s magnetospheric injections

Jupiter’s ultraviolet auroral emissions are divided into four main components: the polar emissions, the main emission, the satellite footprints and the outer emissions. The morphology of the outer emissions can be either diffuse, arc-shaped or compact emissions. In the present study, we focus on outer emissions clearly detaching from the main emission and forming compact structures that are evolving regardless of the rest of the auroral emission. These auroral features were selected because they have the same appearance as the auroral signature of a clearly identified injection previously observed by Mauk et al. [2002] at Jupiter, based on simultaneous Galileo spacecraft and Hubble Space Telescope measurements.
Here, we report on the evolution of those ultraviolet auroral features appearing in Hubble Space Telescope images of the northern and southern Jovian hemispheres. We investigate the possibility that those ultraviolet auroral structures are associated with energetic particle injections. For this study, we analyze the temporal variations of the longitudinal extent and of the brightness of the auroral structures. Indeed, the injected charged particles drift at different rates due to energy-dependent gradient and curvature drifts, which leads to an increase with time of the longitudinal extent of the feature and of its associated auroral signature. Since the injected energy follows the same trend, the brightness decreases with time.
Different processes can generate auroral signatures of plasma injections. We simulate them by considering that pitch angle diffusion is generated by the precipitating energy flux in the ionosphere and whistler-mode waves through electron scattering. We compare the characteristics of the simulated signature with the observed parameters. Following this comparison, we are able to test whether the aforementioned mechanism is responsible for the auroral emission and to infer the typical energy and the spectral index of the energy distribution of the electrons involved in the injection process.