Magnetospheric Radio Emissions



This image is a radio map of Jupiter which shows the plasmasphere.
Click on image for full size version (92K GIF)
Image provided courtesy of JPL

Besides the beautiful aurora at the north and south poles, the magnetosphere generates lots of noisy radio signals. These signals are the signature of some mechanism which is transporting particles, causing particles to be lost from the magnetosphere, or causing regions of the magnetsphere to be unstable. The names of some of these emissions are:

  • Auroral Kilometric Radiation (AKR)
  • DecAMetric Radiation (DAM)
  • DecIMetric Radiation (DIM)
  • KilOMetric Radiation (KOM)
  • whistler waves
  • lion roars
  • chorus
  • hiss

Scientists continue to study these emissions to understand all that they are telling us about processes within the magnetosphere.

Return to "What is a Magnetosphere?"



Magnetospheric Radio Emissions



This image is a radio map of Jupiter which shows the plasmasphere.
Click on image for full size version (92K GIF)
Image provided courtesy of JPL

Besides the beautiful aurora at the north and south poles, the magnetosphere generates lots of noisy radio signals. These signals tell us that something is happening within the magnetosphere, such as particles are being transported from place to place, particles are leaving the magnetosphere, or regions of the magnetosphere are becoming unstable. The names of some of these emissions are:

  • whistler waves
  • lion roars
  • chorus
  • hiss

Scientists continue to study these emissions to understand all that they are telling us about processes within the magnetosphere.

Return to "What is a Magnetosphere?"



Magnetospheric Radio Emissions



This image is a radio map of Jupiter which shows the plasmasphere.
Click on image for full size version (92K GIF)
Image provided courtesy of JPL

Besides the beautiful aurora at the north and south poles, the magnetosphere generates lots of noisy radio signals. These signals tell us that something is happening within the magnetosphere, such as particles are being transported from place to place, or particles are leaving the magnetosphere. The names of some of these signals are:

  • whistler waves
  • lion roars
  • chorus
  • hiss

Scientists continue to study these signals to understand all that they are telling us about what is happening within the magnetosphere.

Return to "What is a Magnetosphere?"




Last modified August 2, 1995 by the Windows Team

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