Periodic Crossings of Saturn's Current Sheet by Cassini: Observations and Modeling

Details Periodic Crossings of Saturn's Current Sheet by Cassini: Observations and Modeling Periodic Crossings of Saturn's Current Sheet by Cassini: Observations and Modeling

Dec 2006

adsabs.harvard.edu/cgi-bin/nph-data_query?bibcode=2006agufmsm21e..05k&link_type=abstract

American Geophysical Union, Fall Meeting 2006, abstract #SM21E-05

Physics

2744 Magnetotail, 2764 Plasma Sheet, 5737 Magnetospheres (2756)

Scientific paper

Cassini continues to provide exciting new observations from the magnetosphere of Saturn. These observations are helping us understand the structure and dynamics of this rotationally dominant magnetosphere. One of the puzzling observations from the latest magnetotail passes is the occurrence of periodic current sheet crossings in a magnetosphere known for its almost axis-symmetric magnetic field. In these crossings, the radial and azimuthal components of the magnetic field reverse sign twice during a spin period of Saturn in a manner similar to the dipole tilt induced motions of the Jovian current sheet. As the dipole tilt of Saturn's magnetic field is less than 0.2 degree, it is not clear how the current sheet can flap up and down over the spacecraft when it is located quite far from the nominal location of the current sheet. In this presentation, we will examine all of the data so far collected by Cassini to catalogue all of the periodic current sheet crossings in the data. We will examine parameters like the radial distance, latitude, longitude and local time of the spacecraft to understand under what conditions the current sheet crossings are observed. We comment on the relationship between these periodic current sheet crossings to periodicities in the quasi- dipolar region of the magnetosphere. Finally, we will explore models of Saturn's current sheet that can explain the periodicities of the observed magnetic field.

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