The important question of how the solar wind influences Jupiter's magnetosphere is difficult to answer due to the lack of consistent up-stream monitoring of the interplanetary medium (IPM) and the large-scale dynamics internal to the magnetosphere. To compensate for the relative lack of in-situ data, solar wind propagation models are often used to estimate the ambient IPM conditions near Jupiter for comparison to remote observations or in-situ measurements. A statistical analysis of the timescales over which Jupiter's magnetosphere reacts to changes in the IPM would allow the solar wind interaction to be better decoupled from internal dynamics; however, solar wind propagation from near-Earth measurements out to Jupiter introduces uncertainties in both the timing and magnitude of changes in the IPM which are themselves difficult to assess. Here, we present an ensemble modeling framework for the solar wind at Jupiter. A variety of existing solar wind models were compared to in-situ measurements from near-Jupiter spacecraft spanning diverse spacecraft-Sun-Earth alignments and phases of the solar cycle, amounting to more than 23,000 hours over four decades. Typical errors in prediction timing and magnitude, as well as conditions under which the different input models performed better than average, were then characterized as part of this framework. The resulting ensemble model produces the most-probable near-Jupiter IPM conditions for times within the tested epoch and provides the estimated variance in these conditions, allowing for a statistical analysis of the relationship between Jupiter’s magnetosphere and the solar wind. In addition to remote sensing studies, the robust modeling of solar wind conditions near Jupiter is crucial to ongoing and future in-situ studies using Galileo, Juno, JUICE, and Europa Clipper measurements; the compression or expansion of the magnetosphere is crucial to interpreting in-situ measurements of Jupiter’s middle and outer magnetosphere. Finally, we will discuss how the work presented here can be extended towards more robust characterization of solar wind parameters and time-dependent propagation of solar wind conditions at other planetary magnetospheres.

We present the first large-scale statistical survey of the Jovian main emission (ME) to map auroral properties from their ionospheric locations out into the equatorial plane of the magnetosphere, where they are compared directly to in-situ spacecraft measurements. We use magnetosphere-ionosphere (MI) coupling theory to calculate currents from the auroral brightness as measured with the Hubble Space Telescope and from plasma flow speeds measured in-situ with the Galileo spacecraft. The effective Pedersen conductance of the ionosphere (\(\Sigma_P^*\)) remains a free parameter in this comparison. We first show that the field-aligned currents per radian of azimuth calculated from the auroral observations, found to be \(I_{||}=9.54^{+11.5}_{-6.35}\) MA rad-1 and \(I_{||}=10.64^{+11.1}_{-6.11}\) MA rad-1 in the north and south, respectively, are consistent with previous results. Then, we calculate the Pedersen conductance from the combined datasets, and find it ranges from \(0.02<\Sigma_P^*<2.26\) mho overall with averages of \(0.14^{+0.31}_{-0.08}\) mho in the north and \(0.14^{+0.26}_{-0.09}\) mho in the south. Taking the currents and effective Pedersen conductance together, we find that the average ME intensity and plasma flow speed in the middle magnetosphere (10-30 RJ) RJ) are broadly consistent with one another under MI coupling theory. We find evidence for peaks in the distribution of \(\Sigma_P^*\) near 7, 12, and 14 hours magnetic local time (MLT). This variation in Pedersen conductance with MLT may indicate the importance of conductance in modulating MLT- and local-time-asymmetries in the ME, including the apparent subcorotation of some auroral features within the ME.

As society moves towards greater dependence on technology, understanding and predicting extreme Space Weather becomes increasingly important. Indeed, the complex, simultaneous interplay between multiple phenomena can unpack further insight into Space Weather effects. Thanks to decades of in-situ and ground observations, long archives of Space Weather measurements are ripe for exploitation by more complex, data intensive techniques. In this study, three decades of in-situ and ground observations of Earth’s Space environment are leveraged to model the joint extremal behaviour of solar wind driving and internal geomagnetic responses, using Bivariate Extreme Value Analysis. While often utilised in other fields with more long-term and/or higher spatial resolution datasets (such as meteorology), this is the first application of this technique in more than one dimension in the field of space plasma physics. An initial result is that upstream and internal variables exhibit weaker extremal dependence on minute timescales than on hourly timescales, in line with characteristic magnetospheric coupling timescales. Specifically, the joint extremal behaviour of a solar wind coupling function with the auroral electrojet index AE is explored and predicted. This modelling enables estimation of a 75-year return period for the 2003 Halloween geomagnetic storm.

High-resolution observations made by the Hubble Space Telescope have developed the modern picture of the Jovian main oval emission as the signature of field-aligned corotation-enforcement currents which keep magnetospheric plasma rotating at the same rate as Jupiter's magnetic field. This model explains the slowly changing behavior and bright emissions of the main oval and allows the magnetosphere to be studied by remote observations, as the auroral oval directly reflects processes in the magnetosphere and properties of the plasma therein. Recent results from the Juno mission have called these results into question, as the strong, field-aligned currents required by the corotation-enforcement current system have not been measured. Where is the corotation-enforcement current-- which must exist to move magnetospheric plasma-- a dominant driver of the main oval emission? Where do other processes drive the main oval aurora instead? We present one of the widest surveys of Jupiter's main oval auroral features to date by combining over 180 hours of Hubble Space Telescope observations to address these questions. This comprehensive survey is the first to measure the corotation rate, an important tool for distinguishing auroral drivers, of all individual auroral features. This analysis is made possible due to the development of automated pipelines to reduce observations, produce keograms, identify discrete auroral emission features, and measure the corotation rates of these features, among other properties. We present the measured properties of emission features as a function of location along the main oval, in terms of longitude, local time, auroral local time, and magnetic local time. These results serve as the foundation for comparison to in-situ measurements from both the Galileo and Juno missions, which will ultimately help reveal which magnetospheric conditions are likely responsible for driving corotating emissions and which are responsible for sub-corotating emissions, such as the dawn storms.

Hubble Space Telescope images of Jupiter’s UV aurora show that the main emission occasionally contracts or expands, shifting toward or away from the magnetic pole by several degrees in response to changes in the solar wind dynamic pressure and Io’s volcanic activity. When the auroral footprints of the Galilean satellites move with the main emission this indicates a change in the stretched field line configuration that shifts the ionospheric mapping of a given radial distance at the equator. However, in some cases, the main emission shifts independently from the satellite footprints, indicating that the variability stems from some other part of the corotation enforcement current system that produces Jupiter’s main auroral emissions. Here we analyze HST images from the Galileo era (1996-2003) and compare latitudinal shifts of the Ganymede footprint and the main auroral emission. We focus on images with overlapping Galileo measurements because concurrent measurements are available of the current sheet strength, which indicates the amount of field line stretching and can influence both the main emission and satellite footprints. We show that the Ganymede footprint and main auroral emission typically, but do not always, move together. Additionally, we find that the auroral shifts are only weakly linked to changes in the current sheet strength measured by Galileo. We discuss implications of the observed auroral shifts in terms of the magnetospheric mapping. Finally, we establish how the statistical reference main emission contours vary with CML and show that the dependence results from magnetospheric local time asymmetries.