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T. V. Johnson, D. L. Matson (Jet Propulsion Lab/Caltech)
In December of 2000, the Cassini spacecraft passed Jupiter on its way to its 2004 rendezvous with Saturn. The Galileo spacecraft at this time was completing its 29th orbit of the giant planet. Science teams on both missions took advantage of this historic opportunity to study the dynamic, complex Jupiter system from two spacecraft, conducting joint observations for months leading up to Cassini's encounter and for some time afterward. Coordinated with an aggressive campaign of ground and space-based observations, the results from these experiments provide a new view of the Jovian magnetosphere interactions, atmospheric and auroral dynamics and Io's volcanic plume activity. This paper will provide an overview the encounter and the status of the various observations.
This work was done at Caltech's Jet Propulsion Laboratory under a contract from NASA.