Mapping Saturn's Magnetic Field Lines to the Ionosphere in the Presence of Field Aligned Currents and Comparison with Observations

Details Mapping Saturn's Magnetic Field Lines to the Ionosphere in the Presence of Field Aligned Currents and Comparison with Observations Mapping Saturn's Magnetic Field Lines to the Ionosphere in the Presence of Field Aligned Currents and Comparison with Observations

Dec 2009

adsabs.harvard.edu/cgi-bin/nph-data_query?bibcode=2009agufmsm23c1631r&link_type=abstract

American Geophysical Union, Fall Meeting 2009, abstract #SM23C-1631

Physics

[2736] Magnetospheric Physics / Magnetosphere/Ionosphere Interactions, [2756] Magnetospheric Physics / Planetary Magnetospheres, [5706] Planetary Sciences: Fluid Planets / Aurorae, [6275] Planetary Sciences: Solar System Objects / Saturn

Scientific paper

Cassini measurements of both plasma and magnetic fields have shown oscillations in Saturn’s magnetosphere with periods near the planetary rotation period, despite the fact that Saturn’s magnetic pole is closely aligned with the spin axis. Southwood and Kivelson [2007] present a model in which a rotating, non-axisymmetric system of field-aligned currents (the cam current system) flow on magnetic L-shells and create magnetic perturbations that, when observed from outside the current shell and combined with Saturn’s internal field, appear as a dipole with tilt relative to the spin axis on the order of 12 degrees, but possibly smaller. Other currents of importance include a ring current and an asymmetric ring current. Observations of Saturn's southern auroral oval by the Hubble Space Telescope in 2008 show that the center of the auroral oval oscillates with a period of 10.76 hours about an ellipse with a semi-major axis of approximately 2.2 degrees, offset from the spin axis by 2.2 degrees [Nichols, 2008]. We model the cam currents and trace field lines lying outside the current-carrying shell from the magnetic equator to the ionosphere in order to compare the model with auroral observations and we consider how other currents may affect the mapping. In particular, the comparison can be used to place constraints on the magnitude of the cam current during the observation interval. We also identify field-aligned currents observed on high latitude passes in 2008 and later and investigate their relation to the predictions of magnitude, sense and invariant latitude of the principal current system.

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