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J.H. Waite, Jr., G.R. Gladstone, P. Robertson, T. Majeed (SwRI), J.T. Clarke (Univ. of Michigan)
Jupiter's aurora is known to vary on time scales ranging from minutes to years at wavelengths that span the electromagnetic spectrum, from radio to x-ray wavelengths. Recent time-tagged Hubble Space Telescope/STIS ultraviolet images extend the observations of jovian auroral variability into the temporal regime of seconds. Evident in the STIS images are large-scale emission features in the northern polar cap that vary rapidly on a time scale of tens of seconds. Among these recently observed features is a dramatic, surge-like brightening. The rapidly varying polar cap emissions may be a signature of magnetic reconnection in the jovian magnetotail. We explore this possibility in this talk and compare the polar cap emissions seen at Jupiter with similar emissions at Earth.