Flux transfer events at the Jovian magnetopause

Recent evidence indicates that magnetic reconnection at the earth's magnetopause may not be a steady process, but rather it is frequently impulsive and limited in spatial extent. These limited reconnection events are called flux transfer events (FTE's). A search has been conducted regarding the magnetic field observations at Jupiter from Pioneer 10 and 11 and Voyager 1 and 2 for evidence of FTE's and 14 possible events were found. The FTE's at Jupiter are associated with northward magnetosheath fields. The electric fields generated by Jovian FTE's are small in comparison with the corotation E field throughout much of the magnetosphere. Thus FTE's are probably not an important source of flow within the Jovian magnetosphere.