06.02.21

Juno’s Auroral Images Trace Motion of Magnetospheric Plasma

During Juno’s first perijove, the Juno Ultraviolet Spectrograph (UVS): 
• Observed a large scale plasma (electrons and ions) transport event, and
• Discovered a new auroral feature: the ‘midnight protrusion’

Auroral images reveal plasma transport events and new auroral features.

Outer emissions expand all around the main oval, suggesting movement of hot plasma in the middle magnetosphere toward Jupiter, and likely cold plasma from the Io Torus moving away from Jupiter.

Hours later, a protrusion appears near local midnight, suggesting a release of plasma down Jupiter’s magnetotail.

Credit: Bonfond et al. (2017)
Geophys. Res. Lett., 
doi:10.1002/2017GL073114

Download Juno's Auroral Images Trace Motion of Magnetospheric Plasma here