Physics
Scientific paper
Dec 2011
adsabs.harvard.edu/cgi-bin/nph-data_query?bibcode=2011agufmsm11a2015p&link_type=abstract
American Geophysical Union, Fall Meeting 2011, abstract #SM11A-2015
Physics
[5706] Planetary Sciences: Fluid Planets / Aurorae, [5719] Planetary Sciences: Fluid Planets / Interactions With Particles And Fields, [5737] Planetary Sciences: Fluid Planets / Magnetospheres, [5744] Planetary Sciences: Fluid Planets / Orbital And Rotational Dynamics
Scientific paper
Electron density measurements from the Cassini RPWS Langmuir Probe instrument have identified a region of plasma densities in Saturn's magnetosphere that are strongly periodic with a modulation near the 10.6-10.8 hour planetary rotation period. The modulated densities have a well-defined boundary that separates the region of high plasma densities at low latitudes from the region of low plasma densities at higher latitudes. This boundary, which we call the plasmapause, is located near the poleward edge of the field-aligned currents associated with the auroral oval, with the low-density plasma region contained inside the auroral oval. The oval itself has also been found to rotate at the planetary rotation period in a highly elliptical motion with the center of the auroral oval oriented toward local noon at the peak of the SKR oscillations (0° longitude). Using gradients in the density profiles to define the boundary of the low-density plasma region and the SLS4 longitude system to determine the mid-point of that region, we show that the orientation of the low-density region is tilted in the sunward direction at the SKR peak longitude of 0°, in agreement with the sunward tilt of Saturn's auroral ovals at the SKR peak longitude. We believe that the plasmapause boundary is magnetically linked to the auroral oval through the system of field-aligned currents that flow between the ionosphere and the magnetosphere.
Groene J.
Gurnett Donald A.
Kurth Willaim S.
Morooka Michiko
Nichols Jonathan D.
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