Jupiter's radiation belts at 13.8 GHz

Master thesis (2017)

Authors

Contributors

I. de Pater (mentor)
Department
Space Engineering (Aerospace Engineering) (TU Delft)
Copyright: © 2017 Moeckel, C.M.
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Published Date

22-05-2017

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Faculty

Aerospace Engineering

Department

Space Engineering

Abstract

The Jupiter flyby of Cassini in 2001 allowed to study the gas giant in detail. Jupiter’s inner magnetosphere is populated by high energy particles, causing an intense radiation observable throughout the microwave regime. The re-calibration of the Cassini RADAR instrument has allowed for constraining the energy distribution of the electron population indicating a lack of high energy particles. Maps of the synchrotron radiation indicate a redistribution of the electrons compared to other epochs, confirming that the magnetosphere was in a highly disturbed stat. The retrieval accounted for the thermal emission from Jupiter and required depleting the polar regions of ammonia.