Electric Io

Historic planetary instability and catastrophe. Evidence for electrical scarring on planets and moons. Electrical events in today's solar system. Electric Earth.

Moderators: MGmirkin, bboyer

User avatar
nick c
Site Admin
Posts: 2483
Joined: Sun Mar 16, 2008 8:12 pm
Location: connecticut

Electric Io creates hot spots on Jupiter

Unread post by nick c » Tue Mar 18, 2008 8:44 am

This article is permeated with an air of befuddlement!
http://www.space.com/scienceastronomy/0 ... spots.html
Newfound glowing spots on Jupiter seem unexpectedly to come from electron beams whipping around the giant planet's volcanic moon Io.


Io is the most volcanic body in the solar system, with its entire surface likely made up of lava from the moon's hundreds of volcanoes.
Io is volcanic! That's my story, and I'm sticking to it :P
As Jupiter spins, its magnetic field sweeps past Io, stripping off roughly 1 ton (about 1,000 kilograms) of matter off Io every second. This matter becomes electrically charged plasma in the magnetic field, forming a doughnut-shaped cloud. As Io orbits the planet, plasma surges around it like rivers do around boulders, creating waves that blast Jupiter's atmosphere with electrons to create auroras.
Jupiter's magnetic field strips a ton of matter off Io per second?!?!
Am I reading this correctly?
Are they saying that the magnetic field of Jupiter creates the electric currents?
and of course, though not explicitly stated, the magnetic field is created by an unseen dynamo hidden within Jupiter :!:
Is that pretzel logic?

As pointed out in a past TPOD:
http://www.thunderbolts.info/tpod/2005/ ... ive-io.htm
Plasma discharge was proposed to explain what was happening on Io 29 years ago...
When Cornell astrophysicist Thomas Gold proposed in the journal Science (Nov, 1979) that the “volcanoes” on Io were actually plasma discharge plumes
How long before mainstream astrophysicists revisit this alternate explanation? and then takes the next logical step (that is to scientifically test) into the Electric Universe?
I get the feeling that this whole house of cards is ready to topple...but there it still stands.
Nick

User avatar
MGmirkin
Moderator
Posts: 1667
Joined: Thu Mar 13, 2008 11:00 pm
Location: Beaverton, Oregon, USA
Contact:

Re: Io creates hot spots on Jupiter

Unread post by MGmirkin » Tue Mar 18, 2008 9:12 am

And we've apparently come full circle back to an "Electric Io." Or rather, Io caught up in Jupiter's plasma torus, as part of a closed loop, which is to be expected of an electrical circuit!

IE, a spot to the fore and a spot to the aft!

So, we've now got the prior article:

(Satellite Footprints [Io, Ganymede, Europa] Seen in Jupiter Aurora)
http://hubblesite.org/newscenter/archiv ... s/2000/38/

We've also got the current article (no pun intended, but I'll take it! :D ):

(Io Creates Spots [plural] on Jupiter)
http://www.space.com/scienceastronomy/0 ... spots.html

We've got Birkeland's terella:

On Possible Electric Phenomena in Solar Systems and Nebulae

(Fig. 260b)
Image

We've got Io in eclipse:

(Io Eclipse Montage)
Image

What they call "volcanic," we call "plasma [EDM] machining" (most likely).

Speaking of volcanism, we've also got Tvashtar:

(Tvashtar plume on Io)
Image

Which the Thunderbolts site has hinted may be something not unlike the "plasma gun" (or "dense plasma focus") effect. (Or, simply active machining pulling material up and out...?)

(Lab results)
Image
http://public.lanl.gov/alp/plasma/downl ... essler.pdf

(Dense plasma focus schematic)
Image
http://focusfusion.org/log/index.php/si ... n_reactor/

Good times, no?
~Michael Gmirkin

P.S. Who needs to reconstruct the old forum, when the new can be rebuilt a little leaner, eh? Cut right to the heart of the matter, says I!
"The purpose of science is to investigate the unexplained, not to explain the uninvestigated." ~Dr. Stephen Rorke
"For every PhD there is an equal and opposite PhD." ~Gibson's law

User avatar
StefanR
Posts: 1371
Joined: Sun Mar 16, 2008 8:31 pm
Location: Amsterdam

Re: Electric Io creates hot spots on Jupiter

Unread post by StefanR » Wed Jun 04, 2008 9:10 am

Image
The margin of the lava flow field associated with the Prometheus volcanic plume on Jupiters’ moon Io. This
entire area is under Prometheus’s active plume, which is constantly raining bright material onto the surface. The darkest
regions, having margins similar to those formed by fluid lava flows on Earth, are believed to be relatively young because they
are not yet covered with plume fallout and are, perhaps, too warm for bright gas rich in sulfur dioxide to condense. The older,
brighter plains to the upper right are covered by ridges formed, possibly, by the folding of the surface or by deposition or
erosion. The bright streaks emanating from the lava flow margins may arise where hot lava vaporizes sulfur dioxide. This
image has a resolution of 12 m and was taken by the Galileo spacecraft on February 22, 2000. Courtesy of NASA/JPL.
http://128.183.114.83/miscellaneous/jup ... 18-150.pdf
The illusion from which we are seeking to extricate ourselves is not that constituted by the realm of space and time, but that which comes from failing to know that realm from the standpoint of a higher vision. -L.H.

User avatar
MGmirkin
Moderator
Posts: 1667
Joined: Thu Mar 13, 2008 11:00 pm
Location: Beaverton, Oregon, USA
Contact:

Re: Electric Io creates hot spots on Jupiter

Unread post by MGmirkin » Thu Jun 05, 2008 4:41 pm

I guess, see additional resources on the Jupiter finally goes 'electric'... thread...

Must've spaced this thread when I wrote over there. ;o] Too much to keep track of...

Cheers,
~Michael Gmirkin
"The purpose of science is to investigate the unexplained, not to explain the uninvestigated." ~Dr. Stephen Rorke
"For every PhD there is an equal and opposite PhD." ~Gibson's law

User avatar
StefanR
Posts: 1371
Joined: Sun Mar 16, 2008 8:31 pm
Location: Amsterdam

Re: Electric Io creates hot spots on Jupiter

Unread post by StefanR » Thu Jul 17, 2008 8:48 am

Since 1965 LASP has sent instruments on eight spacecraft to Venus, Mars, Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus, and Neptune. LASP scientists made the first reliable topographic map of Mars; found evidence of active vulcanism on Venus; studied very bright aurora on Jupiter and worked to understand its

Image
A frame from a movie of Io's plasma torus. (LASP EUV image from Cassini)

magnetosphere; measured in unprecedented detail the fine structure of Saturn's rings; and even imaged Halley's comet from orbit around Venus. The result has been a better understanding of planetary processes. For example, theoretical work on Saturn's rings spilled over into the related area of planetary formation, especially important as more extra-solar planets are discovered. Other LASP research programs focus on Martian climate, geology, and geochemistry; on the role of electrically-charged dust in the evolving solar system; on low-velocity impacts in microgravity; and on the geology of the satellites of the giant planets.

LASP now has two active planetary insruments in space, on the Galileo and Cassini spacecraft. Data from Galileo show the Io plasma torus - a ring of ions and electrons near Io's orbit - responding to the injection of gases into near-Io space by Io's volcanos. When Cassini flew past Jupiter in 2001-02, LASP scientists made a movie of this torus rotating and wobbling around Jupiter; used acetylene to trace wind systems in Jupiter's atmosphere; and found that Jupiter's enormously powerful aurora flicker like Earth's.
http://lasp.colorado.edu/tour/science_r ... planetary/
The illusion from which we are seeking to extricate ourselves is not that constituted by the realm of space and time, but that which comes from failing to know that realm from the standpoint of a higher vision. -L.H.

User avatar
StefanR
Posts: 1371
Joined: Sun Mar 16, 2008 8:31 pm
Location: Amsterdam

Re: Electric Io creates hot spots on Jupiter

Unread post by StefanR » Sat Aug 02, 2008 7:38 am

Jupiter's Io Generates Power and Noise, But No Magnetic Field
December 10, 2001

A great roar of acoustic waves near the north and south poles of Jupiter's moon Io shouts about the power of the volcanic moon.

The wave data, new pictures and other information collected recently by NASA's Galileo spacecraft provide insight into what happens above Io's surface, at its colorful volcanoes and inside its hot belly. Scientists presented the findings Monday at a meeting of the American Geophysical Union in San Francisco.

Galileo, managed by NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, Calif., has been orbiting Jupiter for six years. As it flew near Io's poles in August and October, the density of charged particles it was passing through suddenly increased about tenfold when the spacecraft crossed the path of a magnetic-field connection between Io and Jupiter, reported Dr. Donald Gurnett of the University of Iowa, Iowa City. The waves, indicating the density, travel in a plasma of charged particles, and would be silent to the ear, but Iowa researchers converted them to sound waves to make the patterns audible.

"You hear a whistling sound from Jupiter's radio emissions, then, just when you go over the pole, you hear a tremendous roar that starts abruptly, then stops abruptly," Gurnett said. "It's like the noise from a huge electrical power generator." Io actually generates as much wattage as about 1,000 nuclear power plants.
Image
The region of increased density is where electrons and ions come up from Io's tenuous atmosphere and follow a "flux tube" where field lines from Jupiter's strong magnetic field intersect Io. In a 1999 flyby of Io, Galileo had provided some indication of the higher density over the moon's poles. This year's two Io flybys were the first to show that those denser areas coincide with the magnetic-field flux tube, Gurnett said.

Recent magnetic-field measurements tell us something new about the plumes erupting from Io's volcanoes and about the moon's molten core, said Dr. Margaret Kivelson of the University of California, Los Angeles.

Galileo detected electrical currents flowing along magnetic field lines above two areas of volcanic activity on Io, Kivelson said. Material shot high from eruptions is apparently affecting conductivity more than 100 kilometers (about 60 miles) above the surface.

"If this is the mechanism that's producing the currents, it may help us in the search for active plumes," she said.

Galileo's routes near Io’s north pole in August and near its south pole in October were chosen for gaining measurements to determine whether Io generates an intrinsic magnetic field of its own within the greater magnetic field generated by Jupiter.

"There's no intrinsic field," Kivelson said. "We can put that question to rest." That means Io's molten iron core does not have the same type of convective overturning by which Earth's molten core generates Earth's magnetic field. Lack of that overturning fits a model of Io's core being heated from the outside, by tidal flexing of the layers around it, rather than being heated from the center.

The heat generated inside Io by the tidal tug of Jupiter makes this moon the most volcanically active world in the solar system. A new color picture of one large volcanic crater, Tupan Patera, shows various red, green, yellow and black surface materials laid down by volcanic interactions of molten rock and sulfur compounds, said Dr. Elizabeth Turtle of the University of Arizona, Tucson. Tupan, named for a Brazilian god of thunder, is one of Io's most persistent volcanoes. Another new image reveals roofed-over portions of a long lava channel, indicating that insulation provided by the cover helped lengthen a large lava flow.

New infrared imagery from Galileo shows that darker areas at Tupan correspond to hotter surface materials, said Dr. Rosaly Lopes of JPL. The infrared data also confirm sulfur-dioxide deposits near the source of a tall plume seen in August above a previously inactive volcano.
http://www.jpl.nasa.gov/releases/2001/r ... 1_240.html

Image

Backlit views (left pair) show a giant volcanic plume as a bulge on the crescent edge of Jupiter's moon Io, and more fully lit views (right pair) reveal rings where sulfur-rich plume material has fallen back to the ground, in images captured by NASA's Galileo spacecraft in early August 2001.

Io is the most volcanically active world known. Galileo and NASA's Voyager and Cassini spacecraft have caught several of Io's volcanoes in action lofting plumes of gas and particles high above the large moon's surface. However, none of the plumes seen previously has climbed as high as the one evidenced in three of these pictures.

During its Aug. 6, 2001, close encounter with Io, Galileo flew right through a space where a plume from the Tvashtar volcano near Io's north pole had been active when Galileo and Saturn-bound Cassini imaged Io seven months earlier. To see if the Tvashtar plume was still active in August, scientists used Galileo's camera to acquire images when the spacecraft was nearly on the opposite side of Io from the Sun, so that Io appears as a backlit crescent.

Tvashtar's plume did not show up, but another one did, rising from a previously undiscovered and still unnamed volcano about 600 kilometers (370 miles) south of Tvashtar. The left two images are color coded to reveal the faint outer plume. The bright inner plume rises about 150 kilometers (90 miles) high, and the top of the faint outer plume can be detected at 500 kilometers (310 miles) above the surface, making this the largest plume ever detected on Io. A portion of the plume with intermediate brightness extends north of the eruption's source vent. (The vertical lines, bright spots and short streaks in these two images are noise.)

One of the more fully illuminated color images of Io (second image from right) reveals a bull's-eye ring of new dark and light materials marking the eruption site. No obvious volcanic center had previously been seen at this location, 41 degrees north latitude and 133 degrees west longitude. The bright material of the new plume deposit overlies the red-ring plume deposit encircling the Tvashtar volcano at 63 degees north, 123 degrees west. Tvashtar's ring deposit was first seen in Galileo images taken in late December 2000.

Another new full-disc color image of Io (far right) reveals yet another new plume deposit near Io's north pole, encircling the Dazhbog Patera volcanic site. This red ring has a diameter of about 1,000 kilometers (620 miles), suggesting a plume height of about 300 kilometers (190 miles). This plume deposit was not present in January 2001, so it is evidence of a new eruption.
http://pirlwww.lpl.arizona.edu/missions ... plume.html
http://pirlwww.lpl.arizona.edu/missions ... /releases/
The illusion from which we are seeking to extricate ourselves is not that constituted by the realm of space and time, but that which comes from failing to know that realm from the standpoint of a higher vision. -L.H.

User avatar
MGmirkin
Moderator
Posts: 1667
Joined: Thu Mar 13, 2008 11:00 pm
Location: Beaverton, Oregon, USA
Contact:

Re: Electric Io creates hot spots on Jupiter

Unread post by MGmirkin » Sun Aug 03, 2008 2:05 pm

:shock: :o

Yowsa, how have I note seen those last two before? Especially the first of the two... Rather tacit acknowledgment of electric currents, and refutation of internal dynamo mechanics [IE, no "inherent" magnetism]. Gee, could it be the electric currents that spawn whatever magnetic fields are present? ;)

Regards,
~Michael
"The purpose of science is to investigate the unexplained, not to explain the uninvestigated." ~Dr. Stephen Rorke
"For every PhD there is an equal and opposite PhD." ~Gibson's law

User avatar
MGmirkin
Moderator
Posts: 1667
Joined: Thu Mar 13, 2008 11:00 pm
Location: Beaverton, Oregon, USA
Contact:

Re: Electric Io creates hot spots on Jupiter

Unread post by MGmirkin » Sun Aug 03, 2008 2:43 pm

(Jupiter's Io Generates Power and Noise, But No Magnetic Field)
http://www.jpl.nasa.gov/releases/2001/r ... 1_240.html
Galileo detected electrical currents flowing along magnetic field lines above two areas of volcanic activity on Io, Kivelson said. Material shot high from eruptions is apparently affecting conductivity more than 100 kilometers (about 60 miles) above the surface.

"If this is the mechanism that's producing the currents, it may help us in the search for active plumes," she said.
Can anyone say Tvashtar / Prometheus vs. the plasma gun model?

http://thunderbolts.info/tpod/2004/arch ... ric-io.htm
http://thunderbolts.info/tpod/2004/arch ... oon-io.htm
http://thunderbolts.info/tpod/2007/arch ... isited.htm
http://thunderbolts.info/tpod/2004/arch ... ries-1.htm
http://thunderbolts.info/tpod/2004/arch ... ries-4.htm
http://thunderbolts.info/tpod/2004/arch ... ries-3.htm

So, we've said the "volcanoes" may not be, and that they're probably electrical features. They've found the electric currents / fields over the "vaolcanoes," but still carry forward on the "volcano" hypothesis... Oy! :x

(Filamentation of Volcanic Plumes on the Jovian Satellite Io)
http://public.lanl.gov/alp/plasma/downl ... essler.pdf

The above paper compares Tvashtar to the "Plasma Gun" / "Dense Plasma Focus," rather favorably, in my opinion.

Regards,
~Michael Gmirkin
"The purpose of science is to investigate the unexplained, not to explain the uninvestigated." ~Dr. Stephen Rorke
"For every PhD there is an equal and opposite PhD." ~Gibson's law

User avatar
MGmirkin
Moderator
Posts: 1667
Joined: Thu Mar 13, 2008 11:00 pm
Location: Beaverton, Oregon, USA
Contact:

Electric Jupiter Creates Hot Spots on Io...

Unread post by MGmirkin » Sun Aug 03, 2008 3:14 pm

It's funny, I was just thinking about the "volcanoes," and realized the thread title was reversible and swings both ways...

Electric Io creates hot spots on Jupiter. (Auroral footprints)
-and-
Electric Jupiter creates hot spots on Io. (Tvashtar / Prometheus "volcanoes")

:D

Regards,
~Michael Gmirkin
"The purpose of science is to investigate the unexplained, not to explain the uninvestigated." ~Dr. Stephen Rorke
"For every PhD there is an equal and opposite PhD." ~Gibson's law

User avatar
StefanR
Posts: 1371
Joined: Sun Mar 16, 2008 8:31 pm
Location: Amsterdam

Re: Electric Io creates hot spots on Jupiter

Unread post by StefanR » Mon Aug 04, 2008 7:32 am

It's funny, I was just thinking about the volcanoes, and realized the thread title was reversible and swings both ways...

Electric Io creates hot spots on Jupiter. (Auroral footprints)
-and-
Electric Jupiter creates hot spots on Io. (Tvashtar / Prometheus "volcanoes")
:lol:
That flashed my mind too. But then again, circuitry is circuitry. I do think that slowly slowly some at Casini are seeing the picture but can the state it as boldly as is done here?

But what I found fascinating is the little statement under the io-torus:
A frame from a movie of Io's plasma torus. (LASP EUV image from Cassini)
Now I was wondering where to find that movie :?
The illusion from which we are seeking to extricate ourselves is not that constituted by the realm of space and time, but that which comes from failing to know that realm from the standpoint of a higher vision. -L.H.

User avatar
StefanR
Posts: 1371
Joined: Sun Mar 16, 2008 8:31 pm
Location: Amsterdam

Re: Electric Io creates hot spots on Jupiter

Unread post by StefanR » Mon Aug 04, 2008 9:21 am

Well I should have looked better. Some links to some data, movies and simulations:
The Io Torus and the Io Flux Tube
As we have already seen Io influences and is strongly influenced by Jupiter's magnetic field. The moon orbits within the field, and material ejected from its surface by volcanoes (and by the charged particle bombardment from the material already trapped in Jupiter's magnetic field) is a primary source of the charged particles in the Jovian magnetic field. These particles (primarily sulfur and oxygen) have a high concentration in a doughnut shaped region surrounding Io's orbit called the Io Torus. Here is a movie simulating the Io Plasma Torus.

As Io moves around its orbit in the strong magnetic field of Jupiter and through this plasma torus, a huge electrical current is set up between Io and Jupiter in a cylinder of highly concentrated magnetic flux called the Io Flux Tube. The Flux Tube has a power output of about 2 trillion watts, comparable to the amount of all manmade power produced on Earth. It is responsible for bursts of radio frequency radiation long detected on Earth.
http://csep10.phys.utk.edu/astr161/lect ... ns/io.html
Image Io torus as observed on 11 November 2000 by Cassini UVIS

Image Summing observations of the Io torus during five Jupiter days (10-14 November 2000) by Cassini UVIS
http://members.fortunecity.com/volcanopele/movies.htm
Image
Video 1: Animation of images from September 28, 1997. Here the images from the mosaic in fig. 2 are joined into a simple animation. No effort has bee made to represent the varying time intervals between images. As before, the images are oriented such that Jovian north is up and the east (approaching) side of the torus is on the left. The above graphic is a GIF animation; it can be loaded externally with this link. There is also an MPEG version here.
http://www.thewoodwards.net/rcwj/AAS99/video.html
Cassini UVIS observations of the Io plasma torus. I. Initial results
Abstract
During the Cassini spacecraft’s flyby of Jupiter (October, 2000–March, 2001), the Ultraviolet Imaging Spectrograph (UVIS) produced an
extensive dataset consisting of 3349 spectrally dispersed images of the Io plasma torus. Here we present an example of the raw data and
representative EUV spectra (561–1181 Å) of the torus, obtained on October 1, 2000 and November 14, 2000. For most of the flyby period,
the entire Io torus fit within the UVIS field-of-view, enabling the measurement of the total power radiated from the torus in the extreme
ultraviolet. A typical value for the total power radiated in the wavelength range of 580–1181 Å is 1.7 × 1012 W, with observed variations
of up to 25%. Several brightening events were observed. These events lasted for roughly 20 hours, during which time the emitted power
increased rapidly by ∼ 20% before slowly returning to the pre-event level. Observed variations in the relative intensities of torus spectral
features provide strong evidence for compositional changes in the torus plasma with time. Spatial profiles of the EUV emission show no
evidence for a sharply peaked “ribbon” feature. The ratio of the brightness of the dusk ansa to the brightness of the dawn ansa is observed to
be highly variable, with an average value of 1.30. Weak longitudinal variations in the brightness of the torus ansae were observed at the 2%
level.
 2004 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.
http://www.boulder.swri.edu/~steffl/pub ... 2004_1.pdf
Links to abstacts concerning Io
http://members.fortunecity.com/volcanopele/dps2000.htm

Introduction
Since its discovery in 1976 (Kupo et al., 1976), the Io plasma torus has been an
enigmatic object. Nearly 30 years later, after numerous observations by ground and
space-based instruments, ¯ve spacecraft encounters, dozens of theoretical models, and
numerous Ph.D. theses, fundamental questions about the torus remain unanswered. In
this chapter, I provide a very basic introduction to the Io plasma torus and list four
broad questions about the Io torus that will be addressed in this thesis.
A more comprehensive review of the Io plasma torus is given by Thomas et al.
(2004) and references therein. Additionally, summaries of prior observations of the Io
torus can be found in Chapters 2{4.
1.1 A brief introduction to the Io plasma torus
Io, the innermost of the four large Galilean satellites of Jupiter, is locked in
a Laplace orbital resonance with two of the other Galilean satellites: Europa and
Ganymede. This resonance pumps the eccentricity of Io's orbit which results in the
tidal heating of Io's interior. The immense amount of energy dissipated in the interior
of Io (up to 3x1015 W (Segatz et al., 1988)) drives active volcanism, making Io the
most volcanically-active body in the solar system. Volcanic plumes and interactions
with the surface form a tenuous, primarily SO2 atmosphere. Material is lost from this
atmosphere, mostly in the form of neutral oxygen and sulfur atoms. These escaping
2
neutrals circle Jupiter on Keplerian orbits and form extended clouds.
Eventually, the neutrals become ionized, at a rate of approximately 1 ton/s,
primarily through electron impact and charge exchange reactions. Once ionized, they
interact with Jupiter's magnetic ¯eld, which at distance of 6{9 RJ from the planet is
e®ectively a dipole ¯eld o®set slightly from the center of the planet and tilted 9.6± from
the rotational axis toward a System III longitude of 200± (Connerney et al., 1998). The
freshly created ions are rapidly accelerated from their Keplerian velocities (17 km/s at
6 RJ ) to nearly the corotation velocity of Jupiter's magnetic ¯eld. Since Jupiter rotates
once every 9.925 hours (Riddle and Warwick, 1976), the corotational velocity at 6 RJ
is 75 km/s. These ions form a dense (» 2000 cm¡3) ring-shaped cloud known as the Io
plasma torus.
The corotating plasma in the Io torus will experience a signi¯cant centrifugal
force due to the rapid rotation of Jupiter. Since magnetic mirror forces on the torus
plasma are generally not important (Bagenal and Sullivan, 1981), the plasma will ¯nd
an equilibrium about the position on a given magnetic ¯eld line that is most distant
from Jupiter's rotation axis. This position is known as the centrifugal equator, and it
is located 1/3 of the way between the magnetic equator and the rotational equator, or
alternatively, 6.4± from the rotational equator (Hill et al., 1974; Cummings et al., 1980).
The balance of centrifugal and pressure forces will cause the torus plasma to spread out
along magnetic ¯eld lines with a scale height determined by the mass and temperature
of the ions.
The tilt between the centrifugal equator plane and the rotational equator plane
cause the Io torus, when viewed from a distance, to appear to wobble. Since the tilt of
Jupiter's magnetic ¯eld is toward a System III longitude of 200±, the torus will appear
in a face-on, or open, con¯guration for an observer near on the rotational equator
at ¸III=20± and ¸III=20±, and edge-on, or closed, con¯guration for an observer at
¸III=110± and ¸III=290±, the longitudes at which the rotational equator and centrifugal
3
equator planes intersect.
The pickup process, whereby fresh ions are accelerated to nearly the corotational
speed of the ambient torus plasma, imparts a signi¯cant amount of kinetic energy to the
picked-up ions (380 eV for sulfur ions and 190 eV for oxygen ions at 6 RJ , assuming an
isotropic distribution. See Eq. 5.1). Typical ion temperatures in the Io plasma torus are
»100 eV, implying that torus ions have lost much of their original pickup energy. The
primary means by which the ions cool are Coulomb interactions with torus electrons.
Because of their low mass, electrons gain very little energy in the pickup process and
are therefore heated primarily through Coulomb interactions. Typical electron temper-
atures in the torus are »5 eV.
The electrons in the torus lose energy by collisional excitation of radiative tran-
sitions in the torus ions. In total, the Io plasma torus radiates roughly »2 TW
(1 TW=1012 W) of power. This constitutes the principal means by which energy is
removed from the torus. Roughly 60% of the total radiated energy is emitted in the
EUV region of the spectrum (500{1200ºA).
Shemansky (1988) and Smith et al. (1988) noted that the power radiated from the
Io torus (primarily in the UV) exceeds the power supplied to the torus by the ion pickup
process. This de¯cit became known as the \energy crisis". Without an additional source
of energy, the torus can neither radiate enough energy to match observations (Sheman-
sky, 1980; Hall et al., 1994b; Ste² et al., 2004a) nor support an electron temperature
of »5 eV (Shemansky, 1988; Barbosa, 1994; Schreier et al., 1998; Lichtenberg, 2001;
Delamere and Bagenal, 2003). One possible source of this extra energy is through the
addition of a small population (a few tenths of a percent of the total electron density) of
high temperature (»50{100 eV) electrons. These relatively hot electrons e±ciently heat
the thermal electrons through Coulomb interactions. Evidence for such a high-energy
population of electrons was found by the Voyager 1 Plasma Science instrument (Sittler
and Strobel, 1987).
4
Plasma is removed from the Io torus in two ways: fast neutrals and outward
radial transport. When a corotating torus ion becomes neutralized (through either
charge exchange reactions or recombination), it is no longer bound by Jupiter's mag-
netic ¯eld. Since the velocity of particles moving at corotation (75.4 km/s at 6.0 RJ )
exceeds Jupiter's escape velocity (59.5 km/s), these neutrals (and the energy associated
with them) are removed from the system and have been detected to a distance of 500 RJ
from Jupiter (Mendillo et al., 1990). Plasma that does not leave the torus as a fast neu-
tral is eventually transported radially outwards into the middle Jovian magnetosphere.
Although the details of this process are not well understood, °ux tube interchange is
generally agreed to be the mechanism responsible for the outward transport of torus
plasma. In °ux tube tube interchange, °ux tubes ¯lled with torus plasma feel a strong
centrifugal force due to Jupiter's rapid rotation and exchange with relatively empty °ux
tubes from the middle magnetosphere. This process is similar to the Raleigh-Taylor in-
stability, which occurs when a higher-density dense °uid overlays a less dense °uid. The
timescale for radial transport is »40{80 days.
http://www.boulder.swri.edu/~steffl/pub ... thesis.pdf


Enjoy! ;)
The illusion from which we are seeking to extricate ourselves is not that constituted by the realm of space and time, but that which comes from failing to know that realm from the standpoint of a higher vision. -L.H.

User avatar
MGmirkin
Moderator
Posts: 1667
Joined: Thu Mar 13, 2008 11:00 pm
Location: Beaverton, Oregon, USA
Contact:

Re: Electric Io creates hot spots on Jupiter

Unread post by MGmirkin » Mon Aug 04, 2008 10:46 am

StefanR wrote:But what I found fascinating is the little statement under the io-torus:
A frame from a movie of Io's plasma torus. (LASP EUV image from Cassini)
Now I was wondering where to find that movie :?
I'd try the planetary photojournal... I think they have most images archived, a few animations / videos too...

http://photojournal.jpl.nasa.gov/index.html

A few interesting snippets, don't know if any of them is what you're looking for or not?

http://photojournal.jpl.nasa.gov/catalog/PIA03450
http://photojournal.jpl.nasa.gov/catalog/PIA02882
http://photojournal.jpl.nasa.gov/catalog/PIA10101
http://photojournal.jpl.nasa.gov/catalog/PIA10100

Regards,
~Michael Gmirkin
"The purpose of science is to investigate the unexplained, not to explain the uninvestigated." ~Dr. Stephen Rorke
"For every PhD there is an equal and opposite PhD." ~Gibson's law

User avatar
StefanR
Posts: 1371
Joined: Sun Mar 16, 2008 8:31 pm
Location: Amsterdam

Re: Electric Io creates hot spots on Jupiter

Unread post by StefanR » Mon Aug 04, 2008 2:26 pm

I'd try the planetary photojournal... I think they have most images archived, a few animations / videos too...
Couldn't find it there, but I think this is what I wanted:
from the bottom of this page : http://lasp.colorado.edu/cassini/whats_ ... chives.htm


Also from that site:
Jupiter Flyby

On 1 October 2000, the NASA/ESA Cassini spacecraft on its way to Saturn started observations of the planet Jupiter. The first data from the Ultraviolet Imaging Spectrograph (UVIS) clearly showed the planet's aurora and a glowing ring of gas ejected from Jupiter's moon Io. This donut of atoms is known as the Io torus.

The UVIS images show multiple overlapping exposures of this torus, each in the characteristic light emitted by sulfur and oxygen atoms. All of these emissions are invisible to the naked eye and can only be seen in the ultraviolet light that the CU telescopes detect. We see the entire donut of glowing gas in all its invisible colors.
Image
One Day in the Life of Jupiter's Io Torus.
The above image is the sum of extreme ultraviolet images taken on Tuesday, 14 November 2000, when Cassini was 27 million miles (or 618 Jupite radii) from Jupiter. The Cassini spacecraft stared at Jupiter for an entire rotation of its atmosphere, that is, one Jupiter "day." Each vertical line shows one type of ionized atom in the Io plasma torus. Shorter wavelengths are on the left and longer on the right. The strongest signals (white) are seen in emissions from ionized oxygen and sulfur atoms. The Jupiter auroral emissions from molecular hydrogen form a central horizontal band on the right; they are dense enough to appear as a structured continuum.

I wish they put those kind of things in just one place :cry: , but then again it would ruin the fun of finding it :D
The illusion from which we are seeking to extricate ourselves is not that constituted by the realm of space and time, but that which comes from failing to know that realm from the standpoint of a higher vision. -L.H.

User avatar
MGmirkin
Moderator
Posts: 1667
Joined: Thu Mar 13, 2008 11:00 pm
Location: Beaverton, Oregon, USA
Contact:

Re: Electric Io creates hot spots on Jupiter

Unread post by MGmirkin » Mon Aug 04, 2008 2:49 pm

StefanR wrote:I wish they put those kind of things in just one place, but then again it would ruin the fun of finding it... :D
Prepare to have your fun ruined!

(NASA and Internet Archive Team to Digitize [and Centralize] Space Imagery)
http://www.nasa.gov/home/hqnews/2007/au ... chive.html

(NASA Images)
http://www.nasaimages.org/

Regards,
~Michael Gmirkin
"The purpose of science is to investigate the unexplained, not to explain the uninvestigated." ~Dr. Stephen Rorke
"For every PhD there is an equal and opposite PhD." ~Gibson's law

User avatar
MGmirkin
Moderator
Posts: 1667
Joined: Thu Mar 13, 2008 11:00 pm
Location: Beaverton, Oregon, USA
Contact:

Re: Electric Io creates hot spots on Jupiter

Unread post by MGmirkin » Fri Aug 08, 2008 1:20 pm

MGmirkin wrote:(Jupiter's Io Generates Power and Noise, But No Magnetic Field)
http://www.jpl.nasa.gov/releases/2001/r ... 1_240.html
Galileo detected electrical currents flowing along magnetic field lines above two areas of volcanic activity on Io, Kivelson said. Material shot high from eruptions is apparently affecting conductivity more than 100 kilometers (about 60 miles) above the surface.

"If this is the mechanism that's producing the currents, it may help us in the search for active plumes," she said.
Did I forget to mention this passage?
Galileo, managed by NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, Calif., has been orbiting Jupiter for six years. As it flew near Io's poles in August and October, the density of charged particles it was passing through suddenly increased about tenfold when the spacecraft crossed the path of a magnetic-field connection between Io and Jupiter, reported Dr. Donald Gurnett of the University of Iowa, Iowa City. The waves, indicating the density, travel in a plasma of charged particles, and would be silent to the ear, but Iowa researchers converted them to sound waves to make the patterns audible. Audio clips are available online at http://www.jpl.nasa.gov/videos/io

"You hear a whistling sound from Jupiter's radio emissions, then, just when you go over the pole, you hear a tremendous roar that starts abruptly, then stops abruptly," Gurnett said. "It's like the noise from a huge electrical power generator." Io actually generates as much wattage as about 1,000 nuclear power plants.
That bears repeating:
Io actually generates as much wattage as about 1,000 nuclear power plants.
Yep, they said wattage. As in electric current... Caught red-handed admitting electrical interactions where they've been pretty much slapped in the face by them...

(Electric power)
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wattage
--> http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Electric_power
Electric power is defined as the rate at which electrical energy is transferred by an electric circuit. The SI unit of power is the watt.
It also makes sense that they'd find an electric current there, considering it's already known that a million Amp current flows between Jupiter / Io...

(The Io Dynamo)
http://pwg.gsfc.nasa.gov/earthmag/wio.htm
The path of the space probe Voyager 1 was designed to check out this dynamo, by flying close to where its currents were expected to flow. It did so on March 5, 1979, and its magnetometer very clearly detected the signature of a current of about a million amperes. Previous to that it was noted that unlike any other moon of Jupiter, Io had a strong influence on radio emissions from Jupiter's magnetosphere, which depended on its position: it could be that the moon's unique electric currents were involved in this.
Regards,
~Michael Gmirkin
"The purpose of science is to investigate the unexplained, not to explain the uninvestigated." ~Dr. Stephen Rorke
"For every PhD there is an equal and opposite PhD." ~Gibson's law

Locked

Who is online

Users browsing this forum: No registered users and 27 guests