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Published February 11, 2006 | Published
Journal Article Open

Enhanced transport in the polar mesosphere of Jupiter: Evidence from Cassini UVIS helium 584 Å airglow

Abstract

The eddy diffusion profile (K) in the auroral regions of Jupiter is not well determined. However, because of the intense auroral energy input, eddy mixing is expected to be much more effective and may be responsible for the enhancement of heavy hydrocarbon production in the polar region. In this paper, we estimate the increased eddy mixing in the Jovian auroral regions by comparing the Cassini Ultraviolet Imaging Spectrograph (UVIS) observations during the 2000 Jupiter flyby with radiative transfer calculations of the He 584 Å airglow intensity. We derive a range for the eddy diffusion coefficients at the homopause (K_h) in the auroral regions to be at least 8 × 10^6 cm^2 s^(−1) and possibly greater than 4 × 10^7 cm^2 s^(−1). By comparison, equatorial K_h is on the order of 2 × 10^6 cm^2 s^(−1).

Additional Information

© 2006 The American Geophysical Union. Received 26 July 2005; Accepted 16 September 2005; Published 11 February 2006. This work was supported by NASA grant NAG5-6263 and the National Aeronautics and Space Administration through the NASA Astrobiology Institute under cooperative agreement CAN-00-OSS-01 issued through the Office of Space Science. A.I.F.S. acknowledges support from the National Aeronautics and Space Administration through JPL contract 961196 and also the great and successful efforts of the UVIS team. A.S.W. thanks Sushil Atreya for discussion and valuable comments. The authors thank editor Julie Moses and reviewers Jack McConnell and Mike Summers for their thorough and thoughtful review and comments.

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