Magnetic Reconnection Near the Planet as a Possible Driver of Jupiter’s Mysterious Polar Auroras

Auroral emissions have been extensively observed at the Earth, Jupiter, and Saturn. These planets all appreciable atmospheres strong magnetic fields, their auroras predominantly originate from a region encircling each pole. However, Jupiter’s poleward of these “main” are brighter more dynamic, drivers responsible for much mysterious polar eluded identification to date. We propose that part solution may stem stronger field. model large-scale Alfvénic perturbations propagating through magnetosphere toward showing resulting <0.1° deflections field closest planet could trigger reconnection as near ∼0.2 Jupiter radii above cloud tops. At Earth Saturn this physics should be negligible, but electric strengths poles can approach ∼1 V m−1, typical solar corona. suggest near-planet generate beams high-energy electrons capable explaining some auroras.