Goldstone Apple Valley Radio Telescope Monitoring Flux Density of Jupiter's Synchrotron Radiation during the Juno Mission

TL;DR

This study monitors Jupiter's synchrotron radiation flux density over three years using the GAVRT telescope, revealing an increasing trend consistent with models of magnetospheric solar wind interactions.

Contribution

It provides long-term observational data of Jupiter's synchrotron radiation, including derived beaming curves and comparison with current models, involving K-12 students in data collection.

Findings

Observed increasing trend in JSR flux density

Beaming curves align with recent radiation belt models

Data supports magnetospheric solar wind interaction theories

Abstract

Goldstone Apple Valley Radio Telescope (GAVRT) is a science education partnership among NASA, the Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL), and the Lewis Center for Educational Research (LCER), offering unique opportunities for K -12 students and their teachers. As part of a long-term Jupiter synchrotron radiation (JSR) flux density monitoring program, LCER has been carrying out Jupiter observations with some student participation. In this paper we present the results of processed data sets observed between March 6, 2015 and April 6 2018. The data are divided into 5 epochs, grouped by time. We derive JSR beaming curves at different epochs and Earth declinations. We present a comparison of the observed beaming curves with those derived from most recent models for the radiation belts. Our results show an increasing trend of the JSR flux density which seem consistent with the models for the magnetospheric solar wind interactions.