ALT An image of the planet Uranus, as seen by NASA's Voyager 2 spacecraft. The gas giant appears here as a smooth, virtually featureless, light blue ball, with the very bottom in slight shadow. The background is completely dark. Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech

ALT Title: Multi-fluid MHD Simulations of Europa's Plasma Interaction under Different Magnetospheric Conditions

ALT Plain Language Summary (shortened, full summary on JGR website): We have developed a computational model for Europa’s space environment. We used the model to study how the changing conditions of Jupiter’s magnetosphere affect the number and temperature of magnetospheric particles that are able to reach Europa’s surface. With this result we can better understand the effect of conditions in Jupiter’s magnetosphere on sputtering and, subsequently, on Europa’s atmosphere. Understanding Europa’s atmosphere and space environment will be critical for interpreting the observations of NASA’s upcoming Europa Clipper mission.

ALT Figure Caption: Precipitation rate of magnetospheric O versus (A) magnetic latitude and (B) outer boundary magnetospheric O number density. Precipitation rate increases with upstream plasma density. This causes precipitation to increase with proximity to plasma sheet, and in more dense global states of Jupiter's magnetosphere.