The authors compare magnetovariational data from the island of Hawaii with simultaneous data from Honolulu, Oahu, and find that while the horizontal magnetic components are similar for the two sites, the vertical magnetic component at Hawaii displays a significant phase shift and a considerably reduced magnitude relative to the vertical magnetic component recorded on Oahu. They explore the possibility that this emission is reflected solar radiation attenuated by a sulfur dioxide atmosphere concentrated largely near Io's equator, and find it to be a plausible explanation. Pendleton et al. Three major features, descent, dehydration, and mixing, are indicated. The descent of air within the vortex is apparent in the descent of the peak of the water vapor profile.
Dehydration is caused by the very low temperatures in the lower stratosphere.
As the vortex breaks up at high altitudes, water vapor rich air is mixed in from mid-latitudes.