Event Details

PhD students/ researchers "Meet the Speaker" at 1pm in B24. Speaker: Dr Matthew Rutala - Dublin Institute for Advanced Studies Dublin, Ireland

Abstract

On the largest scales, the scale and form of Jupiter's magnetosphere are determined by the balance of internal and external pressures. Externally, a dynamic (ram) pressure arises from solar wind plasma— a continuous stream of charged, magnetized particles originating in the Sun— impinging on the Jovian magnetosphere. Internally, Jupiter's magnetosphere provides both an outward magnetic pressure and a spatially-varying dynamic pressure originating from the rapid rotation of the plasma-laden magnetic field lines. The external pressure provided by the solar wind is one of the most direct ways in which the solar wind couples to Jupiter’s magnetosphere, and the effects of this coupling are felt throughout the system — from the bow shock and magnetopause to the auroral ionosphere. Adequately characterizing this interaction is crucial to better understanding how Jupiter’s vast magnetosphere and aurorae respond to the solar wind.

In this seminar, I will discuss some recent and ongoing attempts to statistically characterize the solar wind interaction with Jupiter’s magnetosphere using novel solar wind modelling techniques and recent data from the Juno spacecraft. First, I will introduce and discuss the Multi-Model Ensemble System for the outer Heliosphere (MMESH, Rutala et al., in review), a framework we have recently developed to leverage multiple, independent models of the solar wind in order to best estimate solar wind conditions and their uncertainties near the outer planets. Propagated solar wind conditions from MMESH are then used to estimate the scale and form of the magnetopause and bow shock by investigating events where Juno has crossed either boundary. The solar wind conditions during these crossings will be compared to parameters estimated from earlier boundary models (e.g., Shue et al. 1997, Joy et al. 2002) before updated forms of these boundary models are discussed.