Equatorial electron density measurements in Saturn's inner magnetosphere

Authors :: J. B. Groene
M. K. Dougherty
D. A. Gurnett
P. Canu
George Hospodarsky
William S. Kurth
A. M. Persoon
Department of Physics and Astronomy [Ames, Iowa]
Iowa State University (ISU)
Centre d'étude des environnements terrestre et planétaires (CETP)
Université de Versailles Saint-Quentin-en-Yvelines (UVSQ)-Institut national des sciences de l'Univers (INSU - CNRS)-Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique (CNRS)
Space and Atmospheric Physics Group [London]
Blackett Laboratory
Imperial College London-Imperial College London
NASA through JPL contract 959515.
Source :: Geophysical Research Letters, Geophysical Research Letters, American Geophysical Union, 2005, 32 (23), pp.L23105. ⟨10.1029/2005GL024294⟩
Publication Year :: 2005
Publisher :: American Geophysical Union (AGU), 2005.
Abstract: International audience; Upper hybrid resonance emissions detected by theRadio and Plasma Wave Science (RPWS) instrument on theCassini spacecraft are used to obtain electron densities onfive equatorial orbits of Saturn at radial distances rangingfrom 3 to 9 saturnian radii (RS). The electron density profilesfor these orbits show a highly repeatable radial dependencebeyond 5 RS, decreasing with increasing radial distanceapproximately as (1/R)3.63. Inside 5 RS, the electron densityprofiles are highly variable. We show that these radialvariations are consistent with a centrifugally-drivenoutward transport of plasma from a source inside 5 RS.