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Mass of Saturn's magnetodisc: Cassini observations

Arridge, CS; Russell, CT; Khurana, KK; Achilleos, N; Andre, N; Rymer, AM; Dougherty, MK; (2007) Mass of Saturn's magnetodisc: Cassini observations. Geophysical Research Letters , 34 (9) , Article L09108. 10.1029/2006GL028921. Green open access

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Abstract

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 similar to 10(6) kg.

Type: Article
Title: Mass of Saturn's magnetodisc: Cassini observations
Open access status: An open access version is available from UCL Discovery
DOI: 10.1029/2006GL028921
Publisher version: http://dx.doi.org/10.1029/2006GL028921
Language: English
Additional information: Copyright 2007 by the American Geophysical Union
Keywords: Magnetic-field, Current sheet, Magnetosphere
UCL classification: UCL
UCL > Provost and Vice Provost Offices > UCL BEAMS
UCL > Provost and Vice Provost Offices > UCL BEAMS > Faculty of Maths and Physical Sciences
UCL > Provost and Vice Provost Offices > UCL BEAMS > Faculty of Maths and Physical Sciences > Dept of Physics and Astronomy
UCL > Provost and Vice Provost Offices > UCL BEAMS > Faculty of Maths and Physical Sciences > Dept of Space and Climate Physics
URI: https://discovery.ucl.ac.uk/id/eprint/169554
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