Possible Causes for the Temporal Variations of 3-micron Hydrocarbon Emissions in the Auroral Regions of Jupiter

Recently, temporal variations of the 3-micron emissions of methane and ethane have been detected in the auroral regions of Jupiter observed from Gemini North (Kim et al. 2019, in preparation). These temporal variations of 3-micron hydrocarbon emissions in the auroral regions can be caused by the following phenomena: temporal variations of temperatures, mixing ratios, auroral particle bombardments and Joule heatings, and the combinations of these. Although we are not able to quantitatively determine the cause of the temporal variations at this moment, we will present the following quantitative discussions: thermal influences on the 3-micron emissions, global mixing ratio distributions of the hydrocarbon molecules, and energy distributions of auroral particles penetrating the hydrocarbon layers. We will also present a possible correlation between the temporal variations of the 3-micron emissions and solar wind activities.