Cassini UVIS observations of Europaʹs oxygen atmosphere and torus

Observations of the Europa environment using the Cassini UltraViolet Imaging Spectrograph (UVIS) show the presence of an extended atomic oxygen atmosphere in addition to the bound molecular oxygen atmosphere first detected by Hubble Space Telescope in 1994 [D.T. Hall, D.F. Strobel, P.D. Feldman, M.A. McGrath, H.A. Weaver, 1995, Detection of an oxygen atmosphere on Jupiterʹs moon Europa, Nature 373, 677–679]. The atomic oxygen measurement provides a direct constraint on the sputtering and loss of Europaʹs water ice surface and the interaction of Europaʹs atmosphere with Jupiterʹs magnetosphere. We derive a loss rate for O2 based on the emission rate of the OI 1356 Å multiplet. UVIS detected substantial variability in the oxygen emission from Europaʹs oxygen atmosphere that we attribute to the viewing geometry. B.H. Mauk, D.G. Mitchell, S.M. Krimigis, E.C. Roelof, C.P. Paranicas [2003, Energetic neutral atoms from a trans-Europa gas torus at Jupiter, Nature 421, 920–922] inferred the presence of a torus of neutral gas at Europaʹs orbit based on Cassiniʹs energetic neutral atom (ENA) image of the Jupiter system acquired with the Magnetospheric Imaging Instrument (MIMI), with the most likely torus constituents being hydrogen and oxygen species sputtered from Europa. Cassini UVIS data rule out O and O2 as the possible torus species reported by Mauk et al. however, unless the torus density is so low that it is undetectable by UVIS (less than 8 atoms / cm3). The UVIS observations indicate the presence of atomic hydrogen and possibly other species, but a full analysis is deferred to a following paper. The hydrogen in the present observations shows a local-time asymmetry and complex spatial distribution.