IOPW Aurora amd Magnetosphere sub-Discipline

                          Update Oct 2016

   There has been a hihg level of effort in the past year on observations 
of Saturn, owing to the continuing Cassini mission and the approaching 
end of the Cassini mission.  There has been a two-year HST observing 
program of Saturn’s aurora led by L. Lamy and S. Badman toward this goal, 
and a concentrated series of auroral images have been obtained over 2016 
in this program.  There have also been some ground-based observations of
the H3+ ionospheric emissions from Saturn in support of the final year
of the Cassini mission.  A set of papers in volume 263 of Icarus has
covered a range of topics in the joint observations of Saturn’s aurora,
see references below.  

   In addition there have been two large HST observing programs devoted
to coordination with the JUNO mission arrival and orbit insertion at
Jupiter.  The first program in the last HST cycle made observations of
Jupiter’s aurora while JUNO was measuring the solar wind on its approach 
to Jupiter, a program led by J. Nichols.  In the present cycle of HST
starting in Fall 2016 a larger program led by D. Grodent will obtain
auroral observations during the prime JUNO mission, concentrating on
measuring the global auroral activity at key times in the JUNO 
spacecraft orbit about Jupiter.  The Japanese EXCEED instrument on the 
HISAKI mission is also operating, and returning observations of the Io 
plasma torus and jovian aurora.  In addition numerous ground-based
observing programs are in place in support of the JUNO mission, 
including observations of the ionospheric emissions of H3+ from Jupiter.
These Jupiter programs are in the early stages, with published results 
expected in the future.  

   The status of the discipline was reported at the July 2015 Magnetospheres 
of the Outer Planets conference, held in Atlanta GA (http://mop.gatech.edu/).
The next MOP meeting will be over 12-16 June 2017 in Uppsala Sweden.   

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

“Saturn’s Northern Auroras as Observed Using the Hubble Space Telescope”, 
J.D. Nichols, S. Badman, E. Bunce, J.T. Clarke, S. Cowley, G. Hunt, and 
G. Provan, Icarus, 263, 17-31, doi: 10.1016/j.icarus.2015.09.008 (2016).  

“Saturn Kilometric Radiation Intensities during the Saturn Auroral 
Campaign of 2013”, W.S. Kurth et al., Icarus, 263, 2-9, 
doi:10.1016/j.icarus.2015.01.003 (2016). 

“Simultaneous Multi-scale and Multi-instrument Observations of Saturn’s 
Aurorae during the 2013 Observing Campaign”, H. Melin et al., Icarus, 263, 
56-74, doi:10.1016/j.icarus.2015.08.021 (2016). 

“A Multi-scale Magnetotail Reconnection Event at Saturn and Associated 
Flows: Cassini/UVIS Observations”, Icarus, 263, 75-82, 
doi:10.1016/j.icarus.2014.12.016 (2016). 

“Saturn’s Auroral Morphology and Field-aligned Currents during a Solar 
Wind Compression”, Icarus, 263, 83-93, doi:10.1016/j.icarus.2014.11.014 
(2016). 

“The Color Ratio-intensity Relation in the Jovian Aurora: Hubble 
Observations of Auroral Components”, J.-C. Gerard, B. Bonfond, D. Grodent, 
and A. Radioti, Plan. Sp. Sci., 131, 14-23, doi:10.1016/j.pss.2016.06.004 
(2016). 

“The Impact of an ICME on the Jovian X-ray Aurora”, W.R. Dunn et al., 
J. Geophys. Res., doi:10.1002/2015JA021888 (2016).

“Weakening of Jupiter’s Main Auroral Emission during January 2014”, S.V.
Badman et al., Geophys. Res. Lett., doi:10.1002/2015GL067366 (2016). 

“Characteristics of North Jovian Aurora from STIS FUV Spectral Images”,
J. Gustin, D. Grodent, L. Ray, B. Bonfond, E. Bunce, J. Nichols, and N. 
Ozak, Icarus, 268, 215-241, doi:10.1016/j.icarus.2015.12.048 (2016). 

“Stability Within Jupiter’s ‘Swirl Region’ over Moderate Timescales”, T.S. 
Stallard, and 10 co-authors incl. J.T. Clarke, Icarus, 268, 145-155, 
doi: 10.1016/j.icarus.2015.12.044 (2016). 

“A Model of Force Balance in Jupiter’s Magnetodisc Including Hot Plasma 
Pressure Anisotropy”, J.D. Nichols, N. Achilleos, and S. Cowley, J. 
Geophys. Res., doi:10.1002/2015JA021807 (2016).