Summary of proposed investigation: observations link field-aligned electron beams with IO S interaction with the jovian magnetosphere. Some of these accelerated electrons result in auroral emissions…

This is a $183,306.89 grant awarded by the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) to the University of Alaska Fairbanks (UAF) on June 16, 2018. The grant funds a research project to investigate how Io-induced Alfven waves propagate and couple energy to dispersive scale lengths, and how effectively inertial Alfven waves and kinetic Alfven waves energize electrons in the Jovian magnetosphere. The proposed work is aligned with NASA's Heliophysics Science Mission Directorate (SMD) objective to explore physical processes in the space environment from the Sun to Earth and throughout the solar system. UAF, a public research university and land, sea, and space grant institution, will use its gyrofluid-kinetic-electron model to study electron acceleration in Jupiter's magnetosphere. This award does not have a set-aside designation. The project will be conducted at UAF's facilities in Fairbanks, Alaska.

Summary of proposed investigation: observations link field-aligned electron beams with IO S interaction with the jovian magnetosphere. Some of these accelerated electrons result in auroral emissions while others remain mirror force trapped and contribute to energy input into the plasma torus. These field-aligned electron beams are generally thought to result from parallel electric fields associated with dispersive scale alfven waves, but the means by which global scale energy transitions to kinetic scale lengths remains unclear. We therefore propose to investigate: (1) how do IO-induced alfven waves propagate and couple energy to dispersive scale lengths and (2) how effectively do inertial alfven waves (at high latitudes) and kinetic alfven waves (in the torus) energize electrons and what are the resulting particle signatures in order to answer these important science questions we will use IO-induced alfvenic perturbations, derived from both satellite magnetometer observations and MHD/hybrid simulations of the IO-jupiter interaction, as inputs to pppl S gyrofluid-kinetic-electron (GKE) model (which has a proven record for the study of electron acceleration in the earth S magnetosphere). The extracted alfvenic wave signatures will be used to drive the ION-gyrofluid component of the GKE model, which will then be evolved in order to understand how the global scale alfvenic energy couples to dispersive scale lengths and accelerates electrons. We will also elucidate the structure of the parallel electric field and the distribution of poynting flux. The proposed work is well aligned with the 2014 NASA SMD science plan, heliophysics objective 1 explore the physical processes in the space environment from the sun to the earth and throughout the solar system because IT advances our understanding of how electrons are accelerated and heated in the jovian magnetosphere. Additionally, the proposal is relevant to the plasma environments research area of the solar systems workings solicitation. Within this research area, IT is applicable to the fundamental processes sub-group because alfven waves and particle acceleration are ubiquitous phenomena in space and astrophysical plasmas. IT is also relevant to the magnetospheric processes sub-group since alfvenic aurora are a fundamental process for transferring magnetospheric energy to planetary ionospheres.