Jovian Dust Streams: A monitor of Io's volcanic plume activity

Abstract

Streams of high speed dust particles originate from Jupiter's innermost Galilean moon Io. After release from Io, the particles collect electric charges in the Io plasma torus, gain energy from the co-rotating electric field of Jupiter's magnetosphere, and leave the Jovian system into interplanetary space with escape speeds over $200km{\mathrm{s}}^{-1}$. Galileo, which was the first orbiter spacecraft of Jupiter, has continuously monitored the dust streams during 34 revolutions about the planet between 1996 and 2002. The observed dust fluxes exhibit large orbit-to-orbit variability due to systematic and stochastic changes. After removal of the systematic variations, the total dust emission rate of Io has been calculated. It varies between $10^{-3}$ and $10\mathrm{kg}{\mathrm{s}}^{-1}$, and is typically in the range of 0.1 to $1kg{\mathrm{s}}^{-1}$. We compare the dust emission rate with other markers of volcanic activity on Io like large-area surface changes caused by volcanic deposits and sightings of volcanic plumes.

Geophysical Research Letters, accepted, 1 color figure, 1 b/w figure

References in corpus (3)

• Analysis of the sensor characteristics of the Galileo dust detector with collimated Jovian dust stream particles
• Jovian dust streams: Probes of the Io plasma torus
• One year of Galileo dust data from the Jovian system: 1996

Cited by in corpus (13)

• Variability in the super-Earth 55 Cnc e
• The K2-ESPRINT Project. I. Discovery of the Disintegrating Rocky Planet K2-22b with a Cometary Head and Leading Tail
• Cassini UVIS Observations of the Io Plasma Torus. IV. Modeling Temporal and Azimuthal Variability
• Cassini UVIS Observations of the Io Plasma Torus. III. Observations of Temporal and Azimuthal Variability
• The Cosmic Dust Analyzer onboard Cassini: ten years of discoveries
• Multi-season optical modulation phased with the orbit of the super-Earth 55 Cnc e
• Ohmic heating of asteroids around magnetic stars
• The Fate of Sub-micron Circumplanetary Dust Grains II: Multipolar Fields
• Galileo dust data from the jovian system: 2000 to 2003
• Dust in the Jupiter system outside the rings
• Mass supply from Io to Jupiter's magnetosphere
• The circumstellar environment of 55 Cnc: The super-Earth 55 Cnc e as a primary target for star-planet interactions
• Large Volcanic Event on Io Inferred from Jovian Sodium Nebula Brightening