Modeling the Jovian aurora

The Jovianaurora is the most powerful aurora in the solar system, over 100 times more powerful than the Earth's aurora. These magnificent visual displays can provide important information about the planetary magnetospherewhich is responsible for the acceleration of energetic particles that produce aurora at any planet. Similarities and differences in planetary auroral emissions are thus a viable means of classifying and studying both comparative atmospheric and magnetosphericprocesses. For instance, at Earth the solar wind is the primary source of auroral power while at Jupiterit is conjectured that the rotation of the planet is the major source of magnetosphericand auroral power. The purpose of this IR project was to develop a model: (1) for use in interpreting the existing set of multispectral observations of Jupiter's aurora; and (2) to designnew experimentsbased on the findings to improve understanding of the underlying auroral processes.