Mass-injection rate from Io into the Io plasma torus |
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| Authors: | AJ Dessler |
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| Institution: | Department of Space Physics and Astronomy, Rice University, Houston, Texas 77001, USA |
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| Abstract: | Theoretical arguments have been presented to the effect that both plasma and energy are supplied to the Jovian magnetosphere primarily from internal sources. If we assume that Io is the source of plasma for the Jovian magnetosphere and that outward flow of plasma from the torus is the means of drawing from the kinetic energy of rotation of Jupiter to drive magnetospheric phenomena, we can obtain a new, independent estimate of the rate of mass injection from Io into the Io plasma torus. We explicitly assume the solar wind supplies neither plasma nor energy to the Jovian magnetosphere in significant amounts. The power expended by the Jovian magnetosphere is supplied by torus plasma falling outward through the corotational-centrifugal-potential field. A lower limit to the rate of mass injection into the torus, which on the average must equal the rate of mass loss from the torus, is therefore derivable if we adopt a value for the power expended to drive the various magnetospheric phenomena. This method yields an injection rate of at least 103 kg/sec, a value in agreement with the results obtained by two other independent methods of estimating mass injection rate. If this injection rate from Io and extraction of energy from Jupiter's kinetic energy of rotation has been maintained over geologic time, then approximately 0.1% of Io's mass (principally in the form of sulfur and oxygen) has been lost to the Jovian magnetosphere, and Jupiter's spin rate has been reduced by less than 0.1%. |
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