Voyager Observations of Jovian Millisecond Radio Bursts

摘要

Voyager Planetary Radio Astronomy data collected over 30-day intervals centered on the two close encounters with Jupiter were utilized to study the characteristics of millisecond-duration radio bursts (s-bursts) at frequencies between 5 and 15 MHz. In this frequency range, s-bursts are found to occur almost independently of Central Meridian Longitude and to depend entirely on the phase of Io with respect to the observer's planetocentric line of sight. Individual bursts typically cover a total frequency range of about 1.5 to 3 MHz, and they are usually strongly circularly polarized. Most bursts in a particular s-burst storm will exhibit the same polarization sense (either right-hand or left-hand), and there is some evidence for a systematic pattern in which one polarizations sense is preferred over the other as a function of Io phase and Central Meridian Longitude. These data are all suggestive of a radio source that is located along the instantaneous Io flux tube and that extends over a linear dimension of 5000 km along the field lines in both the northern and southern hemispheres.