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T.S. Stallard, S. Miller, N. Achilleos (U. College London), D. Rego, R. Prang\'{e} (Institut d'Astrophysique Spatiale), M. Dougherty (Space \& Atmospheric Physics, Imperial Coll.), R.D. Joseph (Inst. for Astronomy, U. of Hawaii)
Recently we have published the first detection of an auroral electrojet - a fast ion wind circulating around the auroral oval - on Jupiter (Rego et al., Nature, 399, 121-123). The detection was made during an unusual "auroral event", but raised the possibility that such electrojets might be detectable under "normal" auroral conditions. This work, currently in progress, is directed towards that aim.
To accomplish this, high resolution infrared spectra and images of the Jovian aurora were taken on the nights of September 7-11th 1998, observing the \nu2 Q(1,0-) line of H+3 at 3.953 \mum. The slit was aligned across the planet, perpendicular to the rotational axis, and the spectra were taken at 1 arcsec steps across the planet through the region of aurora.
Each spectrum has been fitted row by row with a gaussian using height, width, background and central position as free parameters. This results in a measurement of how the relative central position varies across each spectra.
Having processed the data, removing any systematic array effects, rotation, and instrumentally based spatial effects, we intend to show a measurable electrojet from the dopler shift it causes. This will be in the form of LOS maps of the auroral region at different CML taken over the 5 night observation period.
The author(s) of this abstract have provided an email address for comments about the abstract: tss@star.ucl.ac.uk