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Nature of solar wind–Jupiter magnetosphere coupling

Determine the nature of the coupling between the solar wind and Jupiter’s magnetosphere by quantifying the degree of solar wind influence on Jovian magnetospheric dynamics, including whether and how variations in the solar wind modulate Jupiter’s ultraviolet auroral emissions.

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Background

Understanding how the solar wind couples to Jupiter’s magnetosphere is central to interpreting mass and energy transport in the Jovian system, yet both strong internal drivers and external forcing complicate the picture. The paper highlights that the extent of solar wind control—and its possible role in modulating UV auroral storms—remains disputed in the literature.

The authors develop new probabilistic models of the magnetopause and bow shock to better constrain boundary locations relative to solar wind conditions, aiming to provide tools that can help quantify solar wind influence. However, the fundamental question of the coupling mechanism and its impact on auroral variability remains unresolved.

References

Solar wind coupling with the Jovian magnetosphere may influence the planet directly, for instance by modulating Jupiter's powerful ultraviolet (UV) auroral storms ; the nature of this interaction remains an open debate \cite<e.g.>{Kotsiaros2019, Lorch2020, Nichols2020, Nichols2022, AlSaati2022, Kamran2022, Rutala2024}, in part due to the difficulty in constraining the degree of solar wind influence over Jupiter's magnetosphere.

— New Models of Jupiter's Magnetopause and Bow Shock through the Juno Prime Mission: Probabilistic Location, Shape, and Internally-driven Variation (2502.09186 - Rutala et al., 13 Feb 2025) in Introduction (Section 1)