Latitudinal Distribution of Electron Populations in Saturn's Magnetosphere

Details Latitudinal Distribution of Electron Populations in Saturn's Magnetosphere Latitudinal Distribution of Electron Populations in Saturn's Magnetosphere

Dec 2009

adsabs.harvard.edu/cgi-bin/nph-data_query?bibcode=2009agufmsm31d..03s&link_type=abstract

American Geophysical Union, Fall Meeting 2009, abstract #SM31D-03

Physics

[2756] Magnetospheric Physics / Planetary Magnetospheres, [2764] Magnetospheric Physics / Plasma Sheet, [5737] Planetary Sciences: Fluid Planets / Magnetospheres, [5780] Planetary Sciences: Fluid Planets / Tori And Exospheres

Scientific paper

Based on the analysis of inter-calibrated electron composite spectra from the low-energy data (CAssini Plasma Spectrometer, from 0.6 eV to 26 keV) and the high-energy data (Magnetospheric IMaging Instrument, from 20 keV to 10 MeV), the thermal and the suprathermal electron populations have been observed to be out of equilibrium. The bimodal spectral shape both populations form in the inner magnetosphere has been modelled as a 2-kappa electron distribution model which has been adjusted to the composite spectra. This paper presents statistical results on the latitudinal distribution of the electron moment (density and temperature), based on high-latitude crossings of Cassini by 2007. Density of the thermal population is observed to decrease out of the equatorial plane. Scale height of thermal electron density is derived. The evolution of temperature along the magnetic field line follows a polytropic law with an index γ strictly lower than 1 (γ=1 isothermal case), as expected in the case of non-thermal plasma populations. Kappa index derived from the temperature and density correlation function is found to be close to the kappa derived from the adjustment of the 2-kappa distribution model to the observed spectra. The latitudinal evolution of electron population moment is analyzed in different magnetospheric regions.

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