An Automated Approach to Modeling Jupiter’s Synchrotron Radiation from Radio Telescope Observations

Abstract

In this study, we used 2.295 GHz radio telescope data to study synchrotron radiation from Jupiter’s magnetosphere. We processed scans of Jupiter and calibrators taken by the Goldstone Apple Valley Radio Telescope on various dates, developing and automating algorithms for outlier removal, baseline subtraction, and Gaussian fitting in order to determine the peak intensity of each scan. Comparing the peak intensities of Jupiter to those of the calibrators and the known fluxes of the calibrators, we computed the flux of Jupiter on each scan. Plotting Jupiter’s flux against the longitude facing Earth at the time of each scan revealed a periodic relationship between the variables and thus a model for expected synchrotron flux from Jupiter observed at a given longitude. This estimate can corroborate other flux measurements of Jupiter at similar frequencies, such as those taken by the microwave radiometer on the Juno
probe.