Physics
Scientific paper
Dec 2006
adsabs.harvard.edu/cgi-bin/nph-data_query?bibcode=2006agufmsm22b..06t&link_type=abstract
American Geophysical Union, Fall Meeting 2006, abstract #SM22B-06
Physics
2731 Magnetosphere: Outer, 2740 Magnetospheric Configuration And Dynamics, 2756 Planetary Magnetospheres (5443, 5737, 6033), 2760 Plasma Convection (2463), 2764 Plasma Sheet
Scientific paper
Voyager and Cassini observations have demonstrated that Saturn's magnetospheric plasma is dominated by material originating from the icy satellites and rings in the inner magnetosphere, which is transported outward at least partly through a sequence of interchange motions. These interchange events replace high-density flux tubes from the inner region with less-dense and hotter plasma from the outer magnetosphere. The latter presumably result when previously loaded flux tubes lose their plasma content into the ambient solar wind. Two possibilities for the plasma loss and flux-tube return exist: 1) the so-called Dungey cycle, in which the loaded flux tubes first lose their water-product contents through dayside reconnection with solar wind magnetic field and then are subsequently reconnected again in the tail, with plasma contents largely of solar wind origin; and 2) the so-called Vasyliunas cycle, in which the plasma loss occurs on the night side, when loaded flux tubes are stressed to the point of reconnecting, allowing a large fraction of the contents to escape downtail as a plasmoid. These two loss scenarios imply different ion compositions for the depleted flux tubes. In this study, we use Cassini CAPS data to compare the relative ion compositions in depleted outer magnetosphere flux tubes with those in the dense loaded regions. We find that depleted flux tubes contain a measurable population of water-group ions but, compared to the denser regions, heavy ions have appreciably lower levels relative to the light ions.
Andre Nicolas
Coates Andrew J.
Crary Frank J.
DiLorenzo J. P.
McAndrews H. J.
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