Evidence for global electron transportation into the jovian inner magnetosphere

Jupiter's magnetosphere is a strong particle accelerator that contains ultrarelativistic electrons in its inner part. They are thought to be accelerated by whistler-mode waves excited by anisotropic hot electrons (>10 kiloelectron volts) injected from the outer magnetosphere. However, electron transportation in the inner magnetosphere is not well understood. By analyzing the extreme ultraviolet line emission from the inner magnetosphere, we show evidence for global inward transport of flux tubes containing hot plasma. High-spectral-resolution scanning observations of the Io plasma torus in the inner magnetosphere enable us to generate radial profiles of the hot electron fraction. It gradually decreases with decreasing radial distance, despite the short collisional time scale that should thermalize them rapidly. This indicates a fast and continuous resupply of hot electrons responsible for exciting the whistler-mode waves.

Tethys and Dione as sources of outward-flowing plasma in Saturn’s magnetosphere

Rotating at over twice the angular speed of Earth, Saturn imposes a rapid spin on its magnetosphere. As a result, cold, dense plasma is believed to be flung outward from the inner magnetosphere by centrifugal force and replaced by hotter, more tenuous plasma from the outer magnetosphere. The centrifugal interchange of plasmas in rotating magnetospheres was predicted many years ago and was conclusively demonstrated by observations in Jupiter's magnetosphere, which--like that of Saturn (but unlike that of Earth)--is rotationally dominated. Recent observations in Saturn's magnetosphere have revealed narrow injections of hot, tenuous plasma believed to be the inward-moving portion of the centrifugal interchange cycle. Here we report observations of the distribution of the angle between the electron velocity vector and the magnetic field vector ('pitch angle') obtained in the cold, dense plasma adjacent to these inward injection regions. The observed pitch-angle distributions are indicative of outward plasma flow and consistent with centrifugal interchange in Saturn's magnetosphere. Further, we conclude that the observed double-peaked ('butterfly') pitch-angle distributions result from the transport of plasma from regions near the orbits of Dione and Tethys, supporting the idea of distinct plasma tori associated with these moons.