An Investigation on the Apparent North‐South Asymmetry Identified in Multiple Current Sheet Crossing Events in Jovian Dawn Outer Magnetosphere

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Abstract
Jovian magnetospheric dynamics are often believed to be mainly controlled by internal elements such as Jupiter's strong and fast‐rotating magnetic moment and Io's abundant volcanic escape, as these internal elements are powerful enough to control the magnetospheric dynamics, contrary to the internal elements of the earth's magnetosphere. On the other hand, the significant influence of external processes has been revealed by observations such as dawn‐dusk asymmetries, indicating the complexity of the driver of Jovian magnetospheric dynamics. To further contrast the influence of internal and external processes, it is essential to explore the effect of external processes on the Jovian magnetosphere. For this purpose, this study investigated the magnetic field in Jupiter's dawn outer magnetosphere and identified several current sheet crossing events displaying apparent north‐south asymmetry. The magnetic field shows a significant difference in variation rate, and the current sheet direction can change by more than 45 degrees while the tendency of variation in the identified events is changeable and hard to conclude. The word “apparent” is used in this paper to show that the apparent asymmetry displayed in data represents the change of the environment, containing the variations of current system and plasma flow, instead of a global asymmetry of the current sheet itself. The apparent asymmetry was suggested to primarily originate from local current sheet flapping, which carries current sheet with parameters different from those carried by the global current sheet flapping. The compressional bursts may also contribute to the apparent asymmetry. These two sources were both attributed to interactions with solar wind, indicating the potential mechanisms for external processes to affect Jupiter's magnetospheric dynamics.
Funding Information
  • National Natural Science Foundation of China (42388101)

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