The Morphology of the X-ray Emission above 2 keV from Jupiter's Aurora
Ronald Elsner (NASA MSFC) , G. Branduardi-Raymont (MSSL), M. Galand (ICL), D. Grodent (U. Liege), G. R. Gladstone & J. H. Waite (SwRI), T. Cravens (U. Kansas), P. Ford (MIT)
The discovery in XMM-Newton X-ray data of X-ray emission above 2 keV from Jupiter's aurorae has led us to reexamine the Chandra ACIS-S observations taken in Feb 2003. Chandra's superior spatial resolution has revealed that the auroral X-rays with E > 2 keV are emitted from the periphery of the region emitting those with E < 1 keV. We are presently exploring the relationship of this morphology to that of the FUV emission from the main auroral oval and the polar cap. The low energy emission has previously been established as due to charge exchange between energetic precipitating ions of oxygen and either sulfur or carbon. It seems likely to us that the higher energy emission is due to precipitation of energetic electrons, possibly the same population of electrons responsible for the FUV emission. We discuss our analysis and interpretation.