Jupiter's Auroral Ionosphere: Hybrid Monte Carlo, Auroral Spectrum and Conductivity Modeling

Abstract We present a new model of auroral precipitation and associated phenomena at Jupiter, called the Jupiter Auroral Ionosphere Code (JAIC). The hybrid model follows the primary electron population using a Monte Carlo code that runs on a GPU, and computes the contribution of the secondaries using a two‐stream approximation. The model includes modules that compute high resolution far‐ultraviolet spectra, the density using simple ion chemistry, and the resulting Pedersen conductivity and radiance. We illustrate the validity of the model and present a number of initial applications. We show that the model successfully relates Juno auroral electron and UV observations, and that an auroral polar transient form is consistent with excitation by 4 keV electrons. We also compute a self‐consistent relation between field‐aligned current density and Pedersen conductance and show that it is consistent with Juno in situ observations. We suggest that Joule heating enabled by the electron contribution to the Pedersen conductivity may explain heating observed at mbar levels. We further show that, in contrast with initial analysis, polar emissions observed by the James Webb Space Telescope are consistent with the electron population above the auroral zone.