Centrifugal Equator in Jupiter’s Plasma Sheet

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https://agupubs.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/epdf/10.1029/2020JA028713

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https://doi.org/10.1029/2020JA028713
 http://hdl.handle.net/11603/20941

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UMBC Center for Space Sciences and Technology (CSST) / Center for Research and Exploration in Space Sciences & Technology II (CRSST II)
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UMBC Physics Department

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2020-12-27

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journal articles
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Citation of Original Publication

Phipps, P., & Bagenal, F. (2021). Centrifugal equator in Jupiter’s plasma sheet. Journal of Geophysical Research: Space Physics, 126, e2020JA028713., DOI: https://doi.org/10.1029/2020JA028713

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Abstract

In Jupiter’s magnetosphere, the structure of the plasma sheet depends on the magnetic field geometry and the centrifugal forces on the plasma. We present a simple formulation for the centrifugal equator, the farthest point along a magnetic flux tube from the planetary spin axis, for Jupiter’s torus to plasma sheet region (5–30 jovian radii). The formulation is based on a dipole magnetic field and azimuthally symmetric current sheet, both tilted by 9.5° toward System III west longitude of 201°. We find a good fit to such a model with a hyperbolic tangent function varying sinusoidally with longitude. The latitudinal angle of the derived centrifugal equator relative to the jovigraphic equator changes from the dipolar value (2/3 of the dipole tilt) around 5 jovian radii to close to the full dipole tilt at 25 jovian radii.