Jovian dust streams: A monitor of Io's volcanic plume activity

摘要

Streams of high speed dust particles originate from Jupiter's moon Io. After release from Io, the particles collect electric charges in the Io plasma torus, gain energy from the co-rotating electric field of Jupiter's magnetosphere, and leave the Jovian system into interplanetary space with escape speeds over 200 km s−1. The Galileo spacecraft has continuously monitored the dust streams during 34 revolutions about Jupiter between 1996 and 2002. The observed dust fluxes exhibit large orbit-to-orbit variability due to systematic and stochastic changes. After removal of the systematic variations, the total dust emission rate of Io has been calculated. It varies between 10−3 and 10 kg s−1, and is typically in the range of 0.1 to 1 kg s−1. We compare the dust emission rate with other markers of volcanic activity on Io like large-area surface changes caused by volcanic deposits and sightings of volcanic plumes.