Investigating the occurrence of Kelvin-Helmholtz instabilities at Jupiter’s dawn magnetopause
File(s)Geophysical Research Letters - 2023 - Montgomery.pdf (2.31 MB)
Published version
Author(s)
Type
Journal Article
Abstract
We use the Kelvin-Helmholtz instability (KHI) condition with particle and magnetic field observations from Jovian Auroral Distributions Experiment and MAG on Juno along the dawn flank of Jupiter's magnetosphere. We identify the occurrence of magnetopause crossings that show evidence of being KH (Kelvin-Helmholtz) unstable. When estimating the k vector to be parallel to the velocity shear, we find that 25 of 62 (40%) magnetopause crossings satisfy the KHI condition. When considering the k vector of the maximum growth rate through a solid angle approach, we find that 60 of 62 (97%) events are KH unstable. This study shows evidence of KH waves at Jupiter's dawn flank, including primary drivers such as high velocity shears and changes in plasma pressure. Signatures of magnetic reconnection were also observed in ∼25% of the KH unstable crossings. We discuss these results and their implication for the prevalence of KHI at Juno's dawn magnetopause as measured by Juno.
Date Issued
2023-07-28
Date Acceptance
2023-04-14
Citation
Geophysical Research Letters, 2023, 50 (14)
ISSN
0094-8276
Publisher
Wiley
Journal / Book Title
Geophysical Research Letters
Volume
50
Issue
14
Copyright Statement
© 2023. The Authors. This is an open access article under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs License, which permits use and distribution in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited, the use is non-commercial and no modifications or adaptations are made.
Publication Status
Published
Article Number
ARTN e2023GL102921
Date Publish Online
2023-07-14