Plasma Convection and Injections in Kronian Magnetosphere

Details Plasma Convection and Injections in Kronian Magnetosphere Plasma Convection and Injections in Kronian Magnetosphere

Dec 2007

adsabs.harvard.edu/cgi-bin/nph-data_query?bibcode=2007agufm.p43a1014u&link_type=abstract

American Geophysical Union, Fall Meeting 2007, abstract #P43A-1014

Physics

6275 Saturn, 7829 Kinetic Waves And Instabilities, 7835 Magnetic Reconnection (2723, 7526), 7846 Plasma Energization, 7859 Transport Processes

Scientific paper

Steady-state access of plasma from the magnetotail to the inner magnetosphere of Saturn is hampered by the large size of corotation-dominated region which extends all the way to the dayside magnetopause (~20RS). Production of plasma by Saturn's moons (e.g. oxygen ions from Enceladus) has been identified as a dominant driver of plasma convection in the inner magnetosphere. Mass loading of flux tubes results in their outward convection and consequent stretching of magnetic field lines consistent with observed disc-like magnetic field configuration. Since the new plasma material does not produce any additional magnetic flux, magnetic field stretching is limited. The convection crisis can be resolved via bursts of magnetic reconnection and partial tailward release of plasma in plasmoids. Flux tubes after reconnection are more tenuous and hotter due to non- adiabatic heating processes. Their volume per unit magnetic flux also decreases, which provides the buoyancy force moving flux tubes back inwards towards the planet. We show that while the outward plasma convection is smooth, the inward injections of the hot plasma observed by the Cassini CAPS instrument are inherently bursty. The injections events can be attributed to reconnection and consequent inward motion of entropy-depleted flux tubes. We present stability analysis which includes corotation effects and possible generation of field-aligned currents.

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