Europa’s interaction with the Jovian plasma from hybrid simulation

               Galilean moons are embedded in Jupiter’s giant magnetosphere. The Jovian plasma particles interact with the atmosphere of the moons, exchanging momentum and energy, and generate different phenomena such as aurora, electric current, etc.

The exploration of the Galilean moons, and in particular Ganymede and Europa, considered as potential habitats, are listed among the main objectives of the ESA JUpiter ICy moon Explorer (JUICE) mission. In preparation for future observations, a modelling effort is conducted to describe the Europa moon-magnetosphere system.

               We have used the LATMOS Hybrid Simulation (LatHyS) model to characterize the Jovian plasma and magnetic field interaction with the moon and its atmosphere. The model is a hybrid 3D, multi-species and parallel simulation model which is based on a kinetic description of ions and a fluid description of electrons. The model is based on the CAM-CL algorithm and various physical processes has been implemented to describe the solar wind (or a magnetospheric plasma) interaction with Mars, Mercury, Titan, Ganymede, Earth-like body etc… (Matthews, 1994, Modolo et al, 2016, Richer et al, 2012, Modolo et al, 2008, Leclercq et al, 2015, Turc et al, 2015).  This simulation model depicts the dynamic and the structure of the ionized environment in the neighborhood of these bodies. Recently, the model has been adapted to Europa-Jupiter interaction. Global simulation results are compared to Galileo observations and will be used to illustrate the conditions that JUICE might encounter during its flybys.

         
References :

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Turc L., Fontaine D., Savoini P., Modolo R., 3D hybrid simulations of the interaction of a magnetic cloud with a bow shock, JGR, 2015

Richer E, Modolo R, Chanteur GM, Hess S and Leblanc F, A Global Hybrid Model for Mercury's Interaction With the Solar Wind: Case Study of the Dipole Representation, Journ. Geophys. Res., doi:10.1029/2012JA017898, 2012

Leclercq L., Modolo R., Leblanc F., Hess S., Mancini M. ,3D Magnetospheric parallel hybrid multi-grid method applied to planet-plasma interactions, Journal of Computational Physics, 309, pp.295-313, 10.1016/j.jcp.2016.01.005, 2016

Modolo R., Hess S., Mancini M., Leblanc F., Chaufray J.-Y., Brain D., Leclercq L., Esteban Hernandez R., Chanteur G., Weill P., Gonzalez-Galindo F. et al., Mars-solar wind interaction: LatHyS, an improved parallel 3-D multispecies hybrid model, Journal of Geophysical Research : Space Physics, American Geophysical Union/Wiley, 2016, 121 (7), pp.6378-6399.10.1002/2015JA022324, 2016