Global upper-atmospheric heating on Jupiter by the polar aurorae.

ABSTRACT: Jupiter's upper atmosphere is considerably hotter than expected from the amount of sunlight that it receives^1-3. Processes that couple the magnetosphere to the atmosphere give rise to intense auroral emissions and enormous deposition of energy in the magnetic polar regions, so it has been presumed that redistribution of this energy could heat the rest of the planet^4-6. Instead, most thermospheric global circulation models demonstrate that auroral energy is trapped at high latitudes by the strong winds on this rapidly rotating planet^3,5,7-10. Consequently, other possible heat sources have continued to be studied, such as heating by gravity waves and acoustic waves emanating from the lower atmosphere^2,11-13. Each mechanism would imprint a unique si

SUBMITTER: O'Donoghue J 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC8338559 | biostudies-literature | 2021 Aug

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature