Presentation #201.04 in the session Future Missions, Instrumentations and Facilities - Part 1 (Oral Presentation)
Radiation belts are regions of trapped high energy charged particles and are found at all of the sufficiently magnetized planets in the Solar System. This fact is quite remarkable, since it implies that particle trapping and acceleration in magnetospheric systems is potentially a universal process in planetary magnetospheres and likely beyond to other astrophysical systems. Of these known radiation belt systems around the Sun, Jupiter reigns supreme by accelerating particles to ultrarelativistic energies. Such high energy thresholds and intensities of trapped radiation render Jupiter more in line with astrophysical systems, like the magnetospheres of pulsars and brown dwarfs, where electron synchrotron emissions represent a significant loss process that can be observed remotely from Earth.
COMPASS is a Heliophysics Mission Concept Study (HMCS) conceptualized and developed for consideration by the 2024-2033 Solar and Space Physics Decadal Survey. COMPASS is ideally instrumented for radiation belt physics, with a unique and unprecedented suite of instruments covering i) particle species from thermal plasma to 10s of MeV electrons and relativistic protons and heavy ions; ii) comprehensive magnetic and electric fields and waves; and iii) X-ray imaging. Combined, that suite will enable the greater scientific community to test existing hypotheses and make new discoveries of how Jupiter’s radiation belts are sourced, accelerated, and lost within such a complex system. Jupiter’s space environment is an ideal natural laboratory for enabling new discoveries and breakthrough progress on the topic of unique and universal radiation belt physics, particularly when put into context with results from previous Jovian missions (e.g., Juno, Galileo) and Van Allen Probes and other radiation belt missions at Earth.
In this presentation, we introduce the science and conceptual design of COMPASS: a dedicated radiation belt mission to Jupiter with the primary goal of exploring the distinctive and universal acceleration, source, transport, and loss processes that drive the most intense radiations belts in the Solar System. We will also discuss cross-divisional science opportunities enabled by COMPASS’ X-ray imager and close flybys of Io and Callisto.