The ion-induced charge-exchange X-ray emission of the Jovian Auroras: Magnetospheric or solar wind origin?

TL;DR

This study presents a comprehensive charge-exchange X-ray emission model for Jovian auroras, incorporating carbon ions to distinguish between solar wind and magnetospheric origins, and compares it with Chandra observations.

Contribution

The paper introduces a new model including carbon ions and analyzes spectral data to determine the origin of precipitating ions in Jovian auroras.

Findings

Carbon ions contribute negligibly to X-ray emission.

Solar wind ions are unlikely the source of observed X-rays.

Precipitating ions have kinetic energies around 0.7-2 MeV/u.

Abstract

A new and more comprehensive model of charge-exchange induced X-ray emission, due to ions precipitating into the Jovian atmosphere near the poles, has been used to analyze spectral observations made by the Chandra X-ray Observatory. The model includes for the first time carbon ions, in addition to the oxygen and sulfur ions previously considered, in order to account for possible ion origins from both the solar wind and the Jovian magnetosphere. By comparing the model spectra with newly reprocessed Chandra observations, we conclude that carbon ion emission provides a negligible contribution, suggesting that solar wind ions are not responsible for the observed polar X-rays. In addition, results of the model fits to observations support the previously estimated seeding kinetic energies of the precipitating ions (~0.7-2 MeV/u), but infer a different relative sulfur to oxygen abundance ratio for these Chandra observations.