Effects of kinetic processes in shaping Io's global plasma environment: A 3D hybrid model

The global dynamics of the ionized and neutral gases in the environment of Io plays an important role in the interaction of Jupiter's corotating magnetospheric plasma with Io. Stationary simulations of this problem have already been done using the magnetohydrodynamics (MHD) and the electrodynamics approaches. One of the major results of recent simplified two-fluid model simulations [Saur, J., Neubauer, F.M., Strobel, D.F., Summers, M.E., 2002. J. Geophys. Res. 107 (SMP5), 1–18] was the production of the structure of the double-peak in the magnetic field signature of the I0 flyby. These could not be explained before by standard MHD models. In this paper, we present a hybrid simulation for Io with kinetic ions and fluid electrons. This method employs a fluid description for electrons and neutrals, whereas for ions a particle approach is used. We also take into account charge-exchange and photoionization processes and solve self-consistently for electric and magnetic fields. Our model may provide a much more accurate description for the ion dynamics than previous approaches and allows us to account for the realistic anisotropic ion velocity distribution that cannot be done in fluid simulations with isotropic temperatures. The first results of such a simulation of the dynamics of ions in Io's environment are discussed in this paper. Comparison with the Galileo I0 flyby results shows that this approach provides an accurate physical basis for the interaction and can therefore naturally reproduce all the observed salient features.