Published March 10, 2022 | Version Submitted
Discussion Paper Open

Updated spherical harmonic moments of Ganymede from the Juno flyby

  • 1. ROR icon Goddard Space Flight Center
  • 2. ROR icon California Institute of Technology

Abstract

In this study, we use data from the Juno and Galileo spacecraft to analyze the internal magnetic dynamo of Ganymede. As the only known moon with a strong internal magnetic field, Ganymede is a uniquely interesting object in the context of understanding the formation and structure of planetary magnetospheres. Using a spherical harmonic model centered on the moon, we report a dipole approximation for Ganymede of g₀¹ = -716.4 nT, g₁¹ = 56.0 nT, and h₁¹ = 27.0 nT. We find that using a quadrupole fit rather than a dipole fit provides only a marginal increase in accuracy, and instead favor the use of a dipole approximation until more data can be obtained. The magnetic moment estimates provided here can be used as a baseline for interpreting data from future spacecraft flybys of the moon, and can serve as inputs into numerical models studying Ganymede's magnetosphere.

Additional Information

This material is based upon work supported by NASA under award number 80GSFC21M0002. KMM is supported by the 51 Pegasi b Fellowship though the Heising-Simons Foundation. All data used in this study can be found on the planetary plasma interactions on the planetary data system. The Galileo data can be found at https://tinyurl.com/GanymedeData. The Juno data can be found at https://tinyurl.com/JunoGanymedeData.

Attached Files

Submitted - essoar.10510782.1.pdf

Files

essoar.10510782.1.pdf

Files (1.5 MB)

Name Size
md5:6e33765cfddf2aafe22c1c6cf5bd9f8c
1.5 MB Preview Download

Additional details

Identifiers

Eprint ID
113867
Resolver ID
CaltechAUTHORS:20220310-121129000

Funding

NASA
80GSFC21M0002
Heising-Simons Foundation
51 Pegasi b Fellowship

Dates

Created
2022-03-11
Created from EPrint's datestamp field
Updated
2022-03-11
Created from EPrint's last_modified field