Spectro-imaging observations of Jupiter’s 2 μm auroral emission. II: Thermospheric winds

• Published in: Icarus
• Main Authors: Chaufray, Jean-Yves, Greathouse, T. K., Gladstone, G. R., Waite, Jr, J. Hunter, Maillard, J. -P., Majeed, T., Bougher, S. W., Lellouch, E., Drossart, Pierre
• Other Authors: Southwest Research Institute San Antonio (SwRI), Institut d'Astrophysique de Paris (IAP), Institut national des sciences de l'Univers (INSU - CNRS)-Sorbonne Université (SU)-Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique (CNRS), Space Physics Research Laboratory Ann Arbor (SPRL), University of Michigan Ann Arbor, University of Michigan System-University of Michigan System, American University of Sharjah, Laboratoire d'études spatiales et d'instrumentation en astrophysique (LESIA (UMR_8109)), Institut national des sciences de l'Univers (INSU - CNRS)-Observatoire de Paris, Université Paris sciences et lettres (PSL)-Université Paris sciences et lettres (PSL)-Université Paris Diderot - Paris 7 (UPD7)-Sorbonne Université (SU)-Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique (CNRS)
• Format: Article in Journal/Newspaper
• Language: English
• Published: HAL CCSD 2011
• Subjects: [SDU]Sciences of the Universe [physics]; North Pole
• Online Access: https://insu.hal.science/insu-03646065; https://doi.org/10.1016/j.icarus.2010.11.021

International audience Infrared observations obtained in 1999-2000 with the Fourier Transform Spectrometer (FTS/BEAR) instrument at the Canada-France-Hawaii Telescope (CFHT) are used to infer the jovian wind velocity in the north pole auroral region. The measured Doppler shifts of the H 2 and H3+ lines near 2.1 μm are used to derive the ion and neutral wind velocities in Jupiter's high latitude thermosphere. We find that the H3+ "hot spot" region reported by Raynaud et al. (Raynaud, E., Lellouch, E., Maillard, J.-P., Gladstone, G.R., Waite Jr., J.H., Bezard, B., Drossart, P., Fouchet, T. [2004]. Icarus 171, 133-152) is characterized by a H3+ flow with a velocity reaching 3.1 ± 0.4 km/s, while only an upper limit for the average H 2 wind velocity of 1.0 km/s is derived. The uncertainties derived for the absolute velocities are primarily due to instrumental effects and don't affect the relative velocity between H3+ and H 2 , for which a lower limit is found to be 1.7 km/s. The lower velocity inferred from the H 2 emission in regards to H3+ emission may result from differences in altitudes sounded by these lines.