Radio Emissions from Jupiter
Listening to Ion Storms from Jupiter and Io
Equipment
- Radio Jove antenna
- Radio Jove receiver
Jupiter is a gas giant, the largest solar system planet and the fifth planet from the Sun. It has a strong magnetic field which attracts charged particles.
Jupiter has a moon called Io which is extremely volcanic and the ejecta from eruptions stream out into space. The ejecta is attracted towards the host planet due to gravity but as it comprises highly charged particles these generate a strong radio source as they fall into Jupiter's magnetic field.
It is theorised that this is the result of synchrotron radiation, which is introduced in the section on Electromagnetic Radiation, although further research is required, and this makes Jupiter's ion storms a good subject for amateur radio astronomy.
Detecting these radio emissions is not too difficult. A project designed and supported by NASA for listening to radio waves from Jupiter is called Radio Jove. The Radio Jove station receives signals between 15MHz and 30MHz as Jupiter's emissions tend to be "decametric", in the range 10Mhz to 40MHz. Details can be found in the additional information links in the side panel.
Radio Jove requires a sizeable aerial due to the long wavelength of decametric waves. The illustration shows the kind of antenna you will need, with two parallel aerial wires each about 7 metres long and aligned east-west, held about 6 metres above ground by poles. This makes it a good project for schools where there may be a field to install the antenna.
The radio signals picked up by the aerial are very weak, however Radio Jove supply a kit of parts to build a receiver. There is a link in the column on the right to NASA's Radio Jove website for more details. The assembled kit should look like this:
The audio clip below is a recording of the sound made when emissions known as S Bursts (Short Bursts) occurs as a result of the interaction between ejecta from volcanoes on Io and Jupiter's magnetic field:
The audio clip below is a recording of the sound made by radio emissions called L Bursts (Long Bursts). They have a similar source as S Bursts, but are of longer duration.
Below is a YouTube live feed from the Radio Jove project. This is the official feed hosted by K4LED.