IOPW Aurora amd Magnetosphere sub-Discipline

  Update Oct 2013

   The concentration of effort in the past year has been at Saturn,
in no small part owing to the continuing Cassini mission.  

   The status of the discipline was reported at the July 2013
Magnetospheres of the Outer Planets conference, held in Athens
Greece (http://space.academyofathens.gr/mop2013/).  There have 
been few observations of the plasma torus in the past year, and 
only scattered observations of Jupiter's aurora, mainly using HST 
and ground-based IR telescopes.  Nonetheless the trove of HST
images including the 2007/2008 large campaign program continue to
lead to new publications (see below).  

   One recent highlight has been the launch of the Japanese mission
Sprint-A / EXCEED, or Hisaki.  This small EUV telescope will orbit
the Earth and obtain time series data on the EUV emissions from the
Io plasma torus, as well as a number of other targets.  Launch was
in August 2013, and the instrument is in its check-put phase now.
(http://www.space.com/22806-japan-launches-epsilon-rocket.html)

   A new HST program has been awarded in the present cycle to follow 
up on earlier successful observations of aurora on Uranus (L. Lamy
is the PI).  Observations have been made, and the data are undergoing
analysis.  

   At Saturn, further coordinated HST and Cassini UVIS and VIMS 
observations are scheduled, and these programs have been very
successful to date.  In the first years of Cassini at Saturn,
there were few UV/IR observations of the aurora, but the number
has been increasing over the years, and is now a common mode
for Cassini:  
(http://www.astronomynow.com/news/n0911/25cassini/)
The lead people are Jon Nichols for the HST, Wayne Pryor for UVIS, 
and Tom Stallard for VIMS.  The detection of auroral emission from 
the magnetic footprint of Enceladus at Saturn was a big event a 
couple of years ago.  

A Few Publications (you can find links to specific papers under the publications menu tab): 

“Auroral Processes on Jupiter and Saturn”, J. T. Clarke, chapter in AGU Geophysical Monograph Series 197, pp. 113-121 doi: 10.1029/2011GM001199 (2012).  

“Remote sensing of the energy of auroral electrons in Saturn’s atmosphere: Hubble and Cassini spectral observations“, J.-C. Gérard, J. Gustin, W.R. Pryor, D. Grodent, B. Bonfond, A. Radioti, G.R. Gladstone, J.T. Clarke, and J.D. Nichols, Icarus, 223, doi:10.1016/j.icarus. 2012.11.033 (2013). 

“Effects of methane on giant planet's UV emissions and implications for the auroral characteristics”, J. Gustin, J.-C. Gérard, D. Grodent, G.R. Gladstone, J.T. Clarke, W. Pryor V. Dols, B. Bonfond, A. Radioti, L., Lamy, and J. Ajello, J. Molecular Spectr., vol, pgs, http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.jms.2013.03.010 (2013).  

“Longitudinal Modulation of the Brightness of Io’s Auroral Footprint Emission: Comparison with Models“, S. Wannawichian, J.T. Clarke, F. Bagenal, W. Smyth, C. Peterson, and J. Nichols, J. Geophys. Res., 118, doi:10.1002/jgra.50346 (2013).  

"Hubble Observations of Jupiter's North-South Conjugate Ultraviolet Aurora", J.-C. Gérard, D. Grodent, A. Radioti, B. Bonfond, and J.T. Clarke, Icarus, 226, 1559-1567, http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.icarus.2013.08.017 (2013).  

“The Multiple Spots of the Ganymede Auroral Footprint”, B. Bonfond, S. Hess, F. Bagenal, J.-C. Gérard, D. Grodent, A. Radioti, J. Gustin, and J.T. Clarke, GRL, 40, 1-5, doi:10.1002/grl.50989 (2013).  

"Multispectral simultaneous diagnosis of Saturn's aurorae throughout a planetary rotation"
L., Lamy et al., JGR, 118, doi:10.1002/jgra50404 (2013).  

"Saturn's auroral/polar H3+ infrared emission: The effect of solar wind compression". JGR, 117, doi:10.1029/2012/JA018201 (2012).