Jovian dust streams: A monitor of Io's volcanic plume activity

[1] Streams of high speed dust particles originate from Jupiter's 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 200 km s−1. The Galileo spacecraft has continuously monitored the dust streams during 34 revolutions about Jupiter 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 kg s−1, and is typically in the range of 0.1 to 1 kg 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.

[1]  Gregor E. Morfill,et al.  Dust in Jupiter's magnetosphere - An Io source , 1980 .

[2]  B. A. Lindblad,et al.  One year of Galileo dust data from the Jovian system: 1996 , 2001 .

[3]  H. Fechtig,et al.  Discovery of Jovian dust streams and interstellar grains by the Ulysses spacecraft , 1993, Nature.

[4]  J. Burns,et al.  Cassini Imaging of Jupiter's Atmosphere, Satellites, and Rings , 2003, Science.

[5]  Alexander V. Krivov,et al.  Impact-generated dust clouds surrounding the Galilean moons , 2003 .

[6]  Gregor E. Morfill,et al.  Three years of Galileo dust data , 1995 .

[7]  G. Ballester,et al.  Discovery of gaseous S2 in Io's Pele plume. , 2000, Science.

[8]  A. Heck,et al.  Analysis of the sensor characteristics of the Galileo dust detector with collimated Jovian dust stream particles , 1999 .

[9]  A. McEwen,et al.  The Pele Plume (Io): Observations with the Hubble Space Telescope , 1997 .

[10]  A. McEwen,et al.  Surface changes on Io during the Galileo mission , 2003 .

[11]  E. Grün,et al.  The Galileo Dust Detector , 1992 .

[12]  S. Collins.  Spatial color variations in the volcanic plume at Loki, on Io , 1981 .

[13]  Thierry Fusco,et al.  High-Resolution Keck Adaptive Optics Imaging of Violent Volcanic Activity on Io , 2002 .

[14]  A. Heck,et al.  Io as a source of the jovian dust streams , 2000, Nature.

[15]  W. Ip,et al.  The dust halo of Io , 1996 .

[16]  J. Spencer,et al.  Violent silicate volcanism on Io in 1996 , 1997 .

[17]  A. McEwen,et al.  Imaging of volcanic activity on Jupiter's moon Io by Galileo during the Galileo Europa Mission and the Galileo Millennium Mission , 2001 .

[18]  David P. Hamilton,et al.  Solar Wind Magnetic Field Bending of Jovian Dust Trajectories , 1996, Science.

[19]  T. Fusco,et al.  Ground‐based observations of volcanism on Io in 1999 and early 2000 , 2001 .

[20]  E. Grün,et al.  Dust in jupiter's magnetosphere: Origin of the ring , 1980 .

[21]  A. Heck,et al.  Galileo observes electromagnetically coupled dust in the Jovian magnetosphere , 1998 .

[22]  Alfred S. McEwen,et al.  The lithosphere and surface of Io , 2004 .

[23]  Todd J. Jones,et al.  Active Volcanism on Io as Seen by Galileo SSI , 1998 .

[24]  Mihaly Horanyi,et al.  Jovian dust streams: Probes of the Io plasma torus , 2002, astro-ph/0211061.

[25]  E. Grün,et al.  Modeling the Galileo dust measurements at Jupiter , 1997 .

[26]  E. Grün,et al.  Mechanism for the acceleration and ejection of dust grains from Jupiter's magnetosphere , 1993, Nature.