Auroral and Non-auroral X-ray Emissions from Jupiter: A Comparative View

Jovian X-rays can be broadly classified into two categories: (1) "auroral" emission, which is confined to high-latitudes ( ˜>60° ) at both polar regions, and (2) "dayglow" emission, which originates from the sunlit low-latitude ( ˜<50° ) regions of the disk (hereafter called "disk" emissions). Recent X-ray observations of Jupiter by Chandra and XMM-Newton have shown that these two types of X-ray emission from Jupiter have different morphological, temporal, and spectral characteristics. In particular: 1) contrary to the auroral X-rays, which are concentrated in a spot in the north and in a band that runs half-way across the planet in the south, the low-latitude X-ray disk is almost uniform; 2) unlike the ˜40±20-min periodic oscillations seen in the auroral X-ray emissions, the disk emissions do not show any periodic oscillations; 3) the disk emission is harder and extends to higher energies than the auroral spectrum; and 4) the disk X-ray emission show time variability similar to that seen in solar X-rays. These differences and features imply that the processes producing X-rays are different at these two latitude regions on Jupiter. We will present the details of these and other features that suggest the differences between these two classes of X-ray emissions from Jupiter, and discuss the current scenario of the production mechanism of them.