Energetic particle injections in Saturns magnetosphere

Physics

Scientific paper

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5737 Magnetospheres (2756), 2720 Energetic Particles, Trapped, 2756 Planetary Magnetospheres (5443, 5737, 6030), 2788 Storms And Substorms

Scientific paper

The Low Energy Magnetosphere Measurement System (LEMMS) and the CHarge Energy Mass Spectromenter (CHEMS) on the Cassini Spacecraft, both part of the Magnetospheric Imaging Instrument (MIMI), have discovered energy-time dispersed energetic ion and electron signatures (greater than 20 keV) within Saturn's inner and middle magnetosphere (L from 4 to 7.5 Rs). They were discovered during the Saturn Orbit Insertion (SOI) orbit of the Cassini mission on 1-2 July 2004. These dispersive events are interpreted here as being caused by sudden planetward injections of energetic particles within regions that are narrowly confined in the longitude direction, followed by the slow and dispersive azimuthal drift of the injected particle to the location of the Cassini spacecraft. This interpretation is suggested by the analysis of similar features discovered by the Galileo mission at Jupiter. The injections at both Jupiter and Saturn may be analogous to the so-called substorm injection phenomenon at Earth. The dispersive properties of five injections at Saturn have been analyzed quantitatively to reveal the longitude and local time of the sudden injections. All five injections occurred on the nightside of Saturn's magnetosphere with best estimate angles with respect to the midnight line ranging between -70 and +60 degrees (the possible range grows to -105 to +135 degrees when random errors are included). If this local time ordering continues with the future observations of injections during future orbits of Cassini, then one would conclude that the solar wind interaction with Saturn participates in the generation of the injections as is observed at Earth and contrary to what appears to occur at Jupiter.

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