Associate for Education and Public Outreach

James O'Donoghue

  (オドノヒュー ジェームズ)

Profile Information

Affiliation
International Top Young Fellow (= Associate Professor), Institute of Space and Astronautical Science, Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency

ORCID ID
 https://orcid.org/0000-0002-4218-1191
J-GLOBAL ID
202001004937995123
researchmap Member ID
R000012796

Major Research History

 3

Major Papers

 30
  • J. O’Donoghue, L. Moore, T. Bhakyapaibul, H. Melin, T. Stallard, J. E.P. Connerney, C. Tao
    Nature, 596(7870) 54-57, Aug 5, 2021  Peer-reviewedLead author
    Jupiter’s upper atmosphere is considerably hotter than expected from the amount of sunlight that it receives1–3. Processes that couple the magnetosphere to the atmosphere give rise to intense auroral emissions and enormous deposition of energy in the magnetic polar regions, so it has been presumed that redistribution of this energy could heat the rest of the planet4–6. Instead, most thermospheric global circulation models demonstrate that auroral energy is trapped at high latitudes by the strong winds on this rapidly rotating planet3,5,7–10. Consequently, other possible heat sources have continued to be studied, such as heating by gravity waves and acoustic waves emanating from the lower atmosphere2,11–13. Each mechanism would imprint a unique signature on the global Jovian temperature gradients, thus revealing the dominant heat source, but a lack of planet-wide, high-resolution data has meant that these gradients have not been determined. Here we report infrared spectroscopy of Jupiter with a spatial resolution of 2 degrees in longitude and latitude, extending from pole to equator. We find that temperatures decrease steadily from the auroral polar regions to the equator. Furthermore, during a period of enhanced activity possibly driven by a solar wind compression, a high-temperature planetary-scale structure was observed that may be propagating from the aurora. These observations indicate that Jupiter’s upper atmosphere is predominantly heated by the redistribution of auroral energy.
  • James O’Donoghue, Luke Moore, Jack Connerney, Henrik Melin, Tom S. Stallard, Steve Miller, Kevin H. Baines
    Icarus, 322 251-260, Apr, 2019  Peer-reviewedLead author
  • James O'Donoghue, Luke Moore, John E. P. Connerney, Henrik Melin, Tom S. Stallard, Steve Miller, Kevin H. Baines
    Geophysical Research Letters, 44(23) 11,762-11,769, Dec 16, 2017  Peer-reviewedLead author
  • J. O’Donoghue, L. Moore, T. S. Stallard, H. Melin
    Nature, 536(7615) 190-192, Aug, 2016  Peer-reviewedLead author
  • O' Donoghue, J, Stallard, T. S, Melin, H, Jones, G. H, Cowley, S. W. H, Miller, S, Baines, K. H, Blake, J. S. D
    Nature, 496(7444), 2013  Peer-reviewedLead author

Major Presentations

 11

Professional Memberships

 4

Media Coverage

 2