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The electromagnetic interaction between Europa and the plasma sheet in the Jovian magnetosphere generates Alfvén waves, ultimately generating auroral footprints in Jupiter's atmosphere. The position of Europa's auroral footprint is a proxy for travel time of the Alfvén waves. We measured Europa's footprint position using the far‐ultraviolet images of Jupiter obtained by the Hubble Space Telescope in two observing campaigns in 2014 and 2022. The measured footprint position indicates a longer Alfvén travel time in the 2022 campaign. We retrieved the plasma sheet parameters at Europa's orbit from the footprint position by tracing the Alfvén waves launched at Europa and found an increase of both mass density and temperature in the plasma sheet in 2022. The Poynting flux generated at Europa is calculated with the retrieved plasma sheet parameters, which suggests the total energy transfer from Europa to its auroral footprint is similar to the case of Io. Plain Language Summary: Europa is an obstacle to the plasma corotating with Jupiter's magnetosphere. Through the interaction between Europa and the magnetospheric plasma flow, Alfvén waves are launched at Europa. The Alfvén waves propagate along the field line and ultimately generate auroral emissions at locations distant from the instantaneous magnetic footprint of Europa. The position of Europa's auroral footprint is a proxy for the travel time of the Alfvén waves. We measured the position of Europa's auroral footprint using the far‐ultraviolet images of Jupiter obtained by the Hubble Space Telescope in two observing campaigns in 2014 and 2022. We found large deviations of the footprint position between the two observing campaigns. By tracing the Alfvén waves launched at Europa, we retrieved plasma mass density and temperature at Europa's orbit from the measured footprint position. It is revealed that time variation in the plasma mass density and temperature caused the deviations in the footprint position. We also calculated the Poynting flux generated at Europa using the retrieved plasma parameters and found that the total energy transfer from Europa to its auroral footprint is similar to the case of Io. Key Points: We measured the equatorial lead angle of Europa's auroral footprint in Jupiter's atmosphere with the HST data taken in 2014 and 2022Plasma conditions at Europa's orbit are retrieved from the measured lead angle by tracing the Europa‐originated Alfvén wavesChanges in the plasma conditions at Europa's orbit can account for the variation of the footprint lead angle [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The ionospheres of Jupiter's icy moons have been observed by in situ plasma measurements and radio science. However, their spatial structures have not yet been fully characterized. To address this, we developed a new ray tracing method for modeling the radio occultation of the ionospheres using Jovian auroral radio sources. Applying our method to Jovian auroral radio observations with the Galileo spacecraft, we derived the electron density of the ionosphere of Ganymede and Callisto. For Ganymede's ionosphere, we found that the maximum electron density on the surface was 76.5–288.5 cm−3 in the open magnetic field line regions and 5.0–20.5 cm−3 in the closed magnetic field line region during the Galileo Ganymede 01 flyby. The difference in the electron density distribution was correlated with the accessibility of Jovian magnetospheric plasma to the atmosphere and surface of the moons. These results indicated that electron‐impact ionization of the Ganymede exosphere and sputtering of the surface water ice were effective for the producing Ganymede's ionosphere. For Callisto's ionosphere, we found that the densities were approximately 350 and 12.5 cm−3 on the night side hemisphere during Callisto 09 and 30 flybys, respectively. These results combined with previous observations indicated that atmospheric production through sublimation controlled the ionospheric density of Callisto. This method is also applicable to upcoming Jovian radio observation data from the Jupiter Icy Moon Explorer, JUICE. Key Points: We developed a ray tracing method for Jupiter's icy moon ionospheric occultation of Jovian auroral radio sourcesThe ionospheric density of Ganymede is associated with electron‐impact ionization and atmospheric production via ion sputteringThe Ionospheric density of Callisto is associated with atmospheric production by solar illumination on its surface [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We present the simultaneous and conjugated auroral emission and particle data obtained by a low‐altitude polar‐orbiting micro‐satellite, Reimei, for elucidating their latitudinal distributions and variations in the nightside auroral oval. Here are reported a few notable examples of the Reimei observations with high time and spatial resolutions, namely ∼120 msec. and ∼1.2 km × 1.2 km for multispectral auroral images and 40 msec. for energy‐pitch angle distributions of electrons and ions with energies of 10 eV–12 keV, respectively. The auroral images show various fine‐scale auroral activities characterized by the following types of auroral forms and variations: faint bands, streaming multiple arcs, shearing arcs, and vortices/curls, which are typical of the latitudinal properties of auroras. The particle analyzer simultaneously observed various properties of electron energy‐pitch angle and latitudinal distributions, and their temporal variations, each of which corresponds to a type of the auroral activities. Their features are summarized below. Reimei repetitively observed inverted‐V signatures of low‐energy (<1 keV) field‐aligned electrons in addition to the higher‐energy (several keV) diffuse electrons in low‐latitude auroral oval. In more active regions at higher latitudes, the dominant energy flux responsible for the multiple‐arc emissions was carried by the well‐known inverted‐V electron precipitation. The rapidly rotating vortices or so‐called curls of fine‐scale discrete auroras near the poleward boundary of the auroral oval were closely associated with the significant energy fluxes of spiky field‐aligned electron bursts with energy‐time dispersions produced by dispersive Alfvén waves. Key Points: Plasma observations with auroral imaging in nightside auroral oval present clear characteristics of several types of particle accelerationsThe image‐particle data reveal correlations and latitudinal properties/dependence of plasma dynamics with the forms and motions of aurorasEnergy‐pitch angle distributions are crucial for elucidating the particle acceleration processes recognized in energy‐time spectrograms [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In the dense and cold atmosphere of Titan, the presence of C2H4 haze has been confirmed by the observations of spacecraft. In the present study, original cryogenic experimental equipment was developed to simulate the low-temperature solid formation of C2H4 in combination with in-situ infrared spectroscopic measurements. As a result, out-of-plane bending vibration ν7 of solid-phase C2H4 located at ~ 10.5 μm was successfully detected with high sensitivity, and two-dimensional spectrographs of C2H4 at low temperatures were obtained. The obtained spectra of C2H4 can be fitted to the double Lorentzian function with various heights, central wavelengths, and full widths at half the maximum (FWHM) of the two-component Lorentzian functions. They were classified into three types using the fitting parameters. However, their spectral shapes are different from the amorphous, metastable, and crystalline forms obtained by the previous laboratory experiment in terms of the distance of two peak wavelengths and FWHM. The results may link to understanding the spectral band properties of C2H4 condensation in the haze component of Titan. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Using the Nadir and Occultation for MArs Discovery instrument aboard Trace Gas Orbiter, we derived the CO/CO2 profiles between 75 and 105 km altitude with the equivalent width technique. The derived CO/CO2 profiles showed significant seasonal variations in the southern hemisphere with decreases near perihelion and increases near aphelion. The estimation of the CO/CO2 profiles with a one‐dimensional photochemical model shows that an altitude‐dependent eddy diffusion coefficient better reproduces the observed profiles than a vertically uniform one. Our estimation suggests that the eddy diffusion coefficient in Ls = 240–270 is uniformly larger by a factor of ∼2 than that in Ls = 90–120 in the southern hemisphere, while they are comparable in the northern hemisphere. This fact demonstrates that the eddy diffusion coefficient is variable with season and latitude. Plain Language Summary: The eddy diffusion coefficient is widely used to parameterize the efficiency of vertical diffusion in the planetary atmosphere, whose variation characterizes the transportation of trace gas species. Additionally, it could vary their vertical distributions in the middle and upper atmosphere, which might cause an impact on the species escaping to space. However, the variability of the eddy diffusion coefficient in those altitude regions have been poorly understood. In this study, we focus on the estimation of variation in the eddy diffusion coefficient by analyzing the CO and CO2 measurements made by the ExoMars Trace Gas Orbiter. The observed CO/CO2 ratio between altitudes of 75 and 105 km shows a significant seasonal variation in the southern hemisphere. The observed CO/CO2 profiles are compared with the simulated profiles obtained with a one‐dimensional photochemical model assigning several shapes and intensity of eddy diffusion coefficient. The comparison shows that the eddy diffusion coefficient is not constant but variable depending on altitude, season, and latitude, which suggests that the efficiency of the vertical diffusion varies with season and latitude. This fact is useful to other 1D photochemical models to reproduce the seasonal and latitudinal variation of atmospheric composition. Key Points: The CO/CO2 profiles from 75 to 105 km measured by NOMAD aboard TGO are used to investigate variations in the eddy diffusion coefficientThe estimated CO/CO2 profiles agree well with the observed profiles if altitude‐dependent eddy diffusion coefficients are consideredOur results demonstrate a substantial seasonal variation in the eddy diffusion coefficient in the southern hemisphere [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]