Mass of Saturn's magnetodisc: Cassini observations

Details Mass of Saturn's magnetodisc: Cassini observations Mass of Saturn's magnetodisc: Cassini observations

May 2007

adsabs.harvard.edu/cgi-bin/nph-data_query?bibcode=2007georl..3409108a&link_type=abstract

Geophysical Research Letters, Volume 34, Issue 9, CiteID L09108

Physics

28

Magnetospheric Physics: Magnetosphere: Outer, Magnetospheric Physics: Magnetospheric Configuration And Dynamics, Magnetospheric Physics: Plasma Sheet, Magnetospheric Physics: Radiation Belts, Planetary Sciences: Solar System Objects: Saturn

Scientific paper

Saturn's ring current was observed by Pioneer 11 and the two Voyager spacecraft to extend 8-16 R S in the equatorial plane and appeared to be driven by stress balance with the centrifugal force. We present Cassini observations that show thin current sheets on the dawn flank of Saturn's magnetosphere, symptomatic of the formation of a magnetodisc. We show that the centrifugal force is the dominant mechanical stress in these current sheets, which reinforces a magnetodisc interpretation - the formation of the current sheet is fundamentally rotational in origin. The stress balance calculation is also used to estimate the mass density in the disc, which show good agreement with independent in-situ measurements of the density. We estimate the total mass in the magnetodisc to be ~106 kg.

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