A. Lecacheux et al., JOVIAN DECAMETER EMISSIONS OBSERVED BY THE WIND WAVES RADIOASTRONOMY EXPERIMENT/, Astronomy and astrophysics, 329(2), 1998, pp. 776-784
The WAVES radio astronomy experiment aboard the Wind spacecraft covers
the frequency range from 1 MHz to 13.8 MHz with spectral resolution s
ix times better than that of the Voyager PRA experiment. By combining
Wind/WAVES observations with simultaneous observations made by the Nan
cay Decametric Array (France) between 10 and 40 MHz, the entire freque
ncy spectrum of the jovian decametric emission can be observed. Two re
presentative Io-controlled events (Io-B/D and Io-C) have been selected
and analysed in terms of the available models of the jovian environme
nt. In the case of the Io-B/D event at frequencies below 20 MHz, obser
vations and models, to some extent, may fit an emission beam aperture
of about 87 degrees. To explain the higher frequencies we must assume
that small refraction effects take place near the source region, consi
stent with topside jovian ionospheric parameters deduced from previous
direct measurements. The Io-C event cannot be explained with this sim
ple emission beam geometry: additional effects have to be invoked, as
strong propagation effects near caustics or large distortion of the ma
gnetic field in the source.