Expected heliospheric attributes of Jovian pickup ions from the extended neutral gas disk

The MIMI CHEMS Instrument on the Cassini Orbiter detected Jovian pickup ions almost an AU upstream of Jupiter during the 2001 flyby. The clue to their planetary origin is the presence of singly ionized sulfur ions in quantities exceeding those expected from the interstellar gas entering the heliosphere (Nature 415 (2002) 994). Earlier modeling of the extended Jovian neutral gas disk suggested how the combination of the orbiting, localized Jovian source and interplanetary ionization processes should combine to produce a distinctive reservoir for heliospheric pickup ion production, different from its interstellar gas counterpart. Here the expected characteristics of pickup ions from the Jovian source are considered using a simplified model. The results provide an idea of the signatures in physical and phase space that reflect both the initial velocities and directionalities of the parent neutral population. Long-term measurements can easily test for these attributes given sufficient spatial and ion energy coverage.