American Geophysical Union, Journal of Geophysical Research, E11(97), p. 18245, 1992
DOI: 10.1029/92je01894
Full text: Download
Energy deposition by electrons having a Maxwellian energy distribution with characteristic energies 10, 30, and 100 keV, precipitating in the high-latitude upper atmosphere of Jupiter, has been studied using a continuous slowing down approximation. Electron fluxes, volume excitation, and ionization rates have been calculated. Chemical equilibrium equations have been solved for 24 ionic species using extensive hydrocarbon chemistry and incorporating diffusive transport for the ion H+. H2 Lyman and Werner bands and H Ly α intensities are obtained considering pure absorption in hydrocarbons. Comparison with Voyager ultraviolet spectrometer data requires incident energy fluxes of about 10, 18, and 45 ergs cm−2 s−1 for characteristic energies 10, 30, and 100 keV, respectively, for polar model methane abundance. Numerical experiments have been performed to study the effect of changing atomic hydrogen and methane number density, three-body reaction rates, incident energy flux, and H2(v≥