Magnetosphere Of Saturn Research Articles

Saturn's Magnetosphere: A Dozen Years of Discovery

Twelve years of studying Saturn's magnetosphere has produced many compelling breakthroughs. Even more exciting, however, is what's left to learn.

A comprehensive analysis of ion cyclotron waves in the equatorial magnetosphere of Saturn

We present a comprehensive analysis of ion cyclotron waves in the equatorial magnetosphere of Saturn, considering all magnetic field data collected during the Cassini era (totaling to over 4 years of data from the equatorial plane). This dataset includes eight targeted flybys of Enceladus, three targeted flybys of Dione, and three targeted flybys of Rhea. Because all remaining orbits of Cassini are high-inclination, our study provides the complete map of ion cyclotron waves in Saturn's equatorial magnetosphere during the Cassini era. We provide catalogs of the radial and longitudinal dependencies of the occurrence rate and amplitude of the ion cyclotron fundamental and first harmonic wave modes. The fundamental wave mode is omnipresent between the orbits of Enceladus and Dione and evenly distributed across all Local Times. The occurrence rate of the fundamental mode displays a Fermi–Dirac-like profile with respect to radial distance from Saturn. Detection of the first harmonic mode is a rare event occurring in only 0.49% of measurements taken and always in conjunction with the fundamental mode. We also search for a dependency of the ion cyclotron wave field on the orbital positions of the icy moons Enceladus, Dione, and Rhea. On magnetospheric length scales, the wave field is independent of the moons' orbital positions. For Enceladus, we analyze wave amplitude profiles of seven close flybys (E9, E12, E13, E14, E17, E18, and E19), which occurred during the studied trajectory segments, to look for any local effects of Enceladan plume variability on the wave field. We find that even in the close vicinity of Enceladus, the wave amplitudes display no discernible dependency on Enceladus' angular distance to its orbital apocenter. Thus, the correlation between plume activity and angular distance to apocenter proposed by Hedman et al. (2013) does not leave a clearly distinguishable imprint in the ion cyclotron wave field.

Suprathermal electron penetration into the inner magnetosphere of Saturn

AbstractFor most Cassini passes through the inner magnetosphere of Saturn, the hot electron population (> few hundred eVs) largely disappears inside of some cutoff L shell. Anode‐and‐actuation‐angle averages of hot electron fluxes observed by the Cassini Electron Spectrometer are binned into 0.1 Rs bins in dipole L to explore the properties of this cutoff distance. The cutoff L shell is quite variable from pass to pass (on timescales as short as 10–20 h). At energies of 5797 eV, 2054 eV, and 728 eV, 90% of the inner boundary values lie between L ~ 4.7 and 8.4, with a median near L = 6.2, consistent with the range of L values over which discrete interchange injections have been observed, thus strengthening the case that the interchange process is responsible for delivering the bulk of the hot electrons seen in the inner magnetosphere. The occurrence distribution of the inner boundary is more sharply peaked on the nightside than at other local times. There is no apparent dependence of the depth of penetration on large‐scale solar wind properties. It appears likely that internal processes (magnetic stress on mass‐loaded flux tubes) are dominating the injection of hot electrons into the inner magnetosphere.

Ion energy distributions and densities in the plume of Enceladus

Enceladus has a dynamic plume that is emitting gas, including water vapor, and dust. The gas is ionized by solar EUV radiation, charge exchange, and electron impact and extends throughout the inner magnetosphere of Saturn. The charge exchange collisions alter the plasma composition. Ice grains (dust) escape from the vicinity of Enceladus and form the E ring, including a portion that is negatively charged by the local plasma. The inner magnetosphere within 10RS (Saturn radii) contains a complex mixture of plasma, neutral gas, and dust that links back to Enceladus. In this paper we investigate the energy distributions, ion species and densities of water group ions in the plume of Enceladus using test particle and Monte Carlo methods that include collisional processes such as charge exchange and ion-neutral chemical reactions. Ion observations from the Cassini Ion and Neutral Mass Spectrometer (INMS) for E07 are presented for the first time. We use the modeling results to interpret observations made by the Cassini Plasma Spectrometer (CAPS) and the INMS. The low energy ions, as observed by CAPS, appear to be affected by a vertical electric field (EZ=−10µV/m) in the plume. The EZ field may be associated with the charged dust and/or the pressure gradient of plasma. The model results, along with the results of earlier models, show that H3O+ ions created by chemistry are predominant in the plume, which agrees with INMS and CAPS data, but the INMS count rate in the plume for the model is several times greater than the data, which we do not fully understand. This composition and the total ion count found in the plume agree with INMS and CAPS data. On the other hand, the Cassini Langmuir Probe measured a maximum plume ion density more than 30,000cm−3, which is far larger than the maximum ion density from our model, 900cm−3. The model results also demonstrate that most of the ions in the plume are from the external magnetospheric flow and are not generated by local ionization. The origin of the ions in the plume was investigated using two different velocity models. Most ions were created by the interaction with background magnetospheric plasma and by photoionization. INMS and CAPS also detected water cluster ions. We will interpret these observations as a result of ion collisions with neutral water clusters, (H2O)n, originating in the tiger stripe vents as suggested by Tokar et al. (2009). We also estimated the process of generating cluster ions based on the INMS observations. We suggest that the most likely source is reaction of H3O+ with neutral water clusters or dimers such as (H2O)2 formed in the plume vents.

Nonlinear density excitations in a magnetorotating relativistic plasma with warm ions and non-Maxwellian electrons

Linear and nonlinear electrostatic ion acoustic waves in a weakly relativistic magnetorotating plasma in the presence of non-Maxwellian electrons and warm ions have been examined. The system under consideration has yielded two solutions, namely, the fast and slow acoustic modes which have been observed to depend on the streaming velocity, ion to electron temperature ratio, and the nonthermality parameter of the non-Maxwellian electrons. Using the multiple time scale analysis, we have derived the three dimensional nonlinear Zakharov–Kuznetsov equation and also presented its solution. Both compressive and rarefactive solitary structures have been found in consonance with the satellite observations. It has been observed that although the linear dispersion relation gives both fast and slow ion acoustic waves, the solitary structures form only for the fast acoustic mode. The dependence of the characteristics of the solitary structures on several plasma parameters has also been explored. The present investigation may be beneficial to understanding the rotating plasma environments such as those found in the planetary magnetospheres of Saturn and Jupiter.

Plasma dynamics in Saturn's middle-latitude ionosphere and implications for magnetosphere-ionosphere coupling

A multifluid model is used to investigate how Saturn's magnetosphere affects ionosphere. The model includes a magnetospheric plasma temperature of 2eV as a boundary condition. The main results are: (1) H+ ions are accelerated along magnetic field lines by ambipolar electric fields and centrifugal force, and have an upward velocity of about 10km/s at 8000km; (2) the ionospheric plasma temperature is 10,000K at 5000km, and is significantly affected by magnetospheric heat flow at high altitudes; (3) modeled electron densities agree with densities from occultation observations if the maximum neutral temperature at a latitude of 54˚ is about 900K or if electrons are heated near an altitude of 2500km; (4) electron heating rates from photoelectrons (≈100K/s) can also give agreement with observed electron densities when the maximum neutral temperature is lower than 700K (note that Cassini observations give 520K); and (5) the ion temperature is high at altitudes above 4000km and is almost the same as the electron temperature. The ionospheric height-integrated Pedersen conductivity, which affects the magnetospheric plasma velocity, varies with local time with values between 0.4 and 10S. We suggest that the sub-corotating ion velocity in the inner magnetosphere depends on the local time, because the conductivity generated by dust–plasma interactions in the inner magnetosphere is almost comparable to the ionospheric conductivity. This indicates that magnetosphere–ionosphere coupling is highly important in the Saturn system.

Planetary period oscillations in Saturn's magnetosphere: Further comments on the relationship between post-equinox properties deduced from magnetic field and Saturn kilometric radiation measurements

We discuss the planetary period oscillations (PPOs) observed by the Cassini spacecraft in Saturn's magnetosphere, in particular the relationship between the properties of the PPOs in the post-equinox interval as observed in magnetic field data by Andrews et al. (2012) and Provan et al. (2013, 2014) and in Saturn kilometric radiation (SKR) emissions by Fischer et al. (2014, 2015), whose results are somewhat discrepant. We show that differences in the reported PPO periods, a fundamental property which should be essentially identical in the two data sets, can largely be accounted for by the phenomenon of dual modulation of the SKR emissions in polarization-separated data, in which the modulation associated with one hemisphere is also present in the other. Misidentification of the modulations results in a reported reversal in the SKR periods in the initial post-equinox interval, south for north and vice versa, relative to the magnetic oscillations whose hemispheric origin is more securely identified through the field component phase relations. Dual modulation also results in the apparent occurrence of phase-locked common periods in the northern and southern SKR data during later intervals during which two separate periods are clearly discerned in the magnetic data through beat modulations in both phase and amplitude. We further show that the argument of Fischer et al. (2015) concerning the phase relation between the magnetic field oscillations and the SKR modulations is erroneous, the phase difference between them revealing the local time (LT) of the upward field-aligned current of the PPO current system at times of SKR modulation maxima. Furthermore, this LT is found to vary significantly over the Cassini mission from dawn, to dusk, and to noon, depending on the LT of apoapsis where the spacecraft spends most time. These variations are consistent with the view that the SKR modulation is fundamentally a rotating system like the magnetic perturbations, though complicated by the strong LT asymmetry in the strength of the sources, and rule out a mainly clock-like (strobe) modulation as argued by Fischer et al. (2015), for which no physical mechanism is suggested. We also elucidate the nature of the magnetic periods, criticized by Fischer et al. (2015), which have previously been derived in ∼100–200 day post-equinox intervals between abrupt changes in PPO properties, and further show that their argument that the magnetic phase data provide evidence for the occurrence of common phase-locked magnetic oscillations in some intervals is fallacious. The most important consequence of our results, however, is that they demonstrate the essential compatibility of the post-equinox magnetic field and SKR data, despite the contrary results published to date. They also show that due to the dual modulation effect in polarization-separated SKR data, analysis and interpretation may contain more subtleties than previously realized. Joint examination of the combined magnetic and SKR data clearly provides greater insight and enhanced confidence compared with analyses of these data sets individually.

What Causes the Strange Pulses in Saturn's Magnetosphere?

A new model shows that a spiral wave may explain why many phenomena in the gas giant's magnetosphere undergo periodic cycles.

Evidence of m = 1 density mode (plasma cam) in Saturn's rotating magnetosphere

AbstractCassini field and plasma data measured in the rotating Saturn Longitude System 3 (SLS3) coordinate system show positive evidence of structure whose dominant azimuthal wave number is m = 1: a long‐lived, nonaxisymmetric, cam‐shaped, global plasma distribution in Saturn's magnetosphere. Previous studies have identified evidence of this plasma cam in wave‐derived electron density data and in Cassini Plasma Spectrometer (CAPS) W+ ion counts data. In this paper we report the first comprehensive analysis of CAPS ion moments data to identify the m = 1 density cam. We employ a multiyear, multispecies database of 685,678 CAPS density values, binned into a 1 RS by 4.8° discretized grid, spanning 4–19 RS. Fourier (harmonic) analysis shows that at most radial distances the dominant azimuthal mode is m = 1, for both W+ and H+ ion distributions. The majority (63%) of m = 1 ion peaks are clustered in an SLS3 quadrant centered at 330°. The plasma cam's existence has important implications for the global interchange‐driven convection cycle and is a clue to solving the mystery of the rotational periodicities in Saturn's magnetosphere.

Dawn‐dusk asymmetries in rotating magnetospheres: Lessons from modeling Saturn

AbstractSpacecraft measurements reveal perplexing dawn‐dusk asymmetries of field and plasma properties in the magnetospheres of Saturn and Jupiter. Here we describe a previously unrecognized source of dawn‐dusk asymmetry in a rapidly rotating magnetosphere. We analyze two magnetohydrodynamic simulations, focusing on how flows along and across the field vary with local time in Saturn's dayside magnetosphere. As plasma rotates from dawn to noon on a dipolarizing flux tube, it flows away from the equator along the flux tube at roughly half of the sound speed (Cs), the maximum speed at which a bulk plasma can flow along a flux tube into a lower pressure region. As plasma rotates from noon to dusk on a stretching flux tube, the field‐aligned component of its centripetal acceleration decreases and it flows back toward the equator at speeds typically smaller than . Correspondingly, the plasma sheet remains far thicker and the field less stretched in the afternoon than in the morning. Different radial force balance in the morning and afternoon sectors produce asymmetry in the plasma sheet thickness and a net dusk‐to‐dawn flow inside of L = 15 or equivalently, a large‐scale electric field (E) oriented from postnoon to premidnight, as reported from observations. Morning‐afternoon asymmetry analogous to that found at Saturn has been observed at Jupiter, and a noon‐midnight component of E cannot be ruled out.

Statistical analysis and multi-instrument overview of the quasi-periodic 1-hour pulsations in Saturn’s outer magnetosphere

The in-situ exploration of the magnetospheres of Jupiter and Saturn has revealed different periodic processes. In particular, in the Saturnian magnetosphere, several studies have reported pulsations in the outer magnetosphere with a periodicity of about 1 h in the measurements of charged particle fluxes, plasma wave, magnetic field strength and auroral emissions brightness. The Low-Energy Magnetospheric Measurement System detector of the Magnetospheric Imaging Instrument (MIMI/LEMMS) on board Cassini regularly detects 1-hour quasi-periodic enhancements in the intensities of electrons with an energy range from a hundred keV to several MeV. We extend an earlier survey of these relativistic electron injections using 10 years of LEMMS observations in addition to context measurements by several other Cassini magnetospheric experiments. The one-year extension of the data and a different method of detection of the injections do not lead to a discrepancy with the results of the previous survey, indicating an absence of a long-term temporal evolution of this phenomenon. We identified 720 pulsed events in the outer magnetosphere over a wide range of latitudes and local times, revealing that this phenomenon is common and frequent in Saturn’s magnetosphere. However, the distribution of the injection events presents a strong local time asymmetry with ten times more events in the duskside than in the dawnside. In addition to the study of their topology, we present a first statistical analysis of the pulsed events properties. The morphology of the pulsations shows a weak local time dependence which could imply a high-latitude acceleration source. We provide some clues that the electron population associated with this pulsed phenomenon is distinct from the field-aligned electron beams previously observed in Saturn’s magnetosphere, but both populations can be mixed. We have also investigated the signatures of each electron injection event in the observations acquired by the Radio and Plasma Wave Science (RPWS) instrument and the magnetometer (MAG). Correlated pulsed signatures are observed in the plasma wave emissions, especially in the auroral hiss, for 12% of the electron injections identified in the LEMMS data. Additionally, in about 20% of the events, such coincident pulsed signatures have been also observed in the magnetic field measurements, some of them being indicative of field-aligned currents. This analysis combined with the multi-instrument approach sets constraints on the origin and significance of the pulsed events. Hence, our results suggest that the acceleration process providing the quasi-periodic relativistic electrons takes place at high-latitudes.

A new spiral model for Saturn's magnetosphere

AbstractRather than a clock‐like strobe, a rotating spiral may underlie the ~10.7 h periodicities observed in many phenomena in Saturn's magnetosphere. This spiral is a density or flux wave propagating outward from the planet, and the periodicity is generated when a spacecraft encounters the wave. The wave moves outward with the Alfvén speed, which can be computed from the magnetic field strength and plasma mass density. Using data from the first 200 days of 2010, the observed field strength and plasma density are used to compute this speed and construct the spiral. When the Cassini spacecraft “flies through” this model on a real trajectory, the model produces a strong main period at 10.7 h with weaker secondary periods at 10.4 h and 11.0 h resulting from Doppler effects. Periodograms of observed phenomena from the same interval show a main peak at 10.7 h but with spurious secondary peaks due to noise.

Cassini observations of ionospheric plasma in Saturn's magnetotail lobes.

Studies of Saturn's magnetosphere with the Cassini mission have established the importance of Enceladus as the dominant mass source for Saturn's magnetosphere. It is well known that the ionosphere is an important mass source at Earth during periods of intense geomagnetic activity, but lesser attention has been dedicated to study the ionospheric mass source at Saturn. In this paper we describe a case study of data from Saturn's magnetotail, when Cassini was located at ≃ 2200 h Saturn local time at 36 R S from Saturn. During several entries into the magnetotail lobe, tailward flowing cold electrons and a cold ion beam were observed directly adjacent to the plasma sheet and extending deeper into the lobe. The electrons and ions appear to be dispersed, dropping to lower energies with time. The composition of both the plasma sheet and lobe ions show very low fluxes (sometimes zero within measurement error) of water group ions. The magnetic field has a swept‐forward configuration which is atypical for this region, and the total magnetic field strength is larger than expected at this distance from the planet. Ultraviolet auroral observations show a dawn brightening, and upstream heliospheric models suggest that the magnetosphere is being compressed by a region of high solar wind ram pressure. We interpret this event as the observation of ionospheric outflow in Saturn's magnetotail. We estimate a number flux between (2.95 ± 0.43) × 109 and (1.43 ± 0.21) × 1010 cm−2 s−1, 1 or about 2 orders of magnitude larger than suggested by steady state MHD models, with a mass source between 1.4 ×102 and 1.1 ×103 kg/s. After considering several configurations for the active atmospheric regions, we consider as most probable the main auroral oval, with associated mass source between 49.7 ±13.4 and 239.8 ±64.8 kg/s for an average auroral oval, and 10 ±4 and 49 ±23 kg/s for the specific auroral oval morphology found during this event. It is not clear how much of this mass is trapped within the magnetosphere and how much is lost to the solar wind.

Sustained lobe reconnection in Saturn's magnetotail

AbstractThe degree to which solar wind driving may affect Saturn's magnetosphere is not yet fully understood. We present observations that suggest that under some conditions the solar wind does govern the character of the plasma sheet in Saturn's outer magnetosphere. On 16 September 2006, the Cassini spacecraft, at a radial distance of 37 Rs near local midnight, observed a sunward flowing ion population for ~5 h, which was accompanied by enhanced Saturn Kilometric Radiation emissions. We interpret this beam as the outflow from a long‐lasting episode of Dungey‐type reconnection, i.e., reconnection of previously open flux containing magnetosheath material. The beam occurred in the middle of a several‐day interval of SKR activity and enhanced lobe magnetic field strength, apparently caused by the arrival of a solar wind compression region with significantly higher than average dynamic pressure. The arrival of the high‐pressure solar wind also marked a change in the composition of the plasma‐sheet plasma, from water‐group‐dominated material clearly of inner‐magnetosphere origin to material dominated by light‐ion composition, consistent with captured magnetosheath plasma. This event suggests that under the influence of prolonged high solar wind dynamic pressure, the tail plasma sheet, which normally consists of inner‐magnetospheric plasma, is eroded away by ongoing reconnection that then involves open lobe field lines. This process removes open magnetic flux from the lobes and creates a more Earth‐like, Dungey‐style outer plasma sheet dominantly of solar wind origin. This behavior is potentially a recurrent phenomenon driven by repeating high‐pressure streams (corotating interaction regions) in the solar wind, which also drive geomagnetic storms at Earth.

Cassini in situ observations of long-duration magnetic reconnection in Saturn’s magnetotail

Magnetic reconnection is a fundamental process in solar system and astrophysical plasmas, through which stored magnetic energy associated with current sheets is converted into thermal, kinetic and wave energy. Magnetic reconnection is also thought to be a key process involved in shedding internally produced plasma from the giant magnetospheres at Jupiter and Saturn through topological reconfiguration of the magnetic field. The region where magnetic fields reconnect is known as the diffusion region and in this letter we report on the first encounter of the Cassini spacecraft with a diffusion region in Saturn's magnetotail. The data also show evidence of magnetic reconnection over a period of 19 h revealing that reconnection can, in fact, act for prolonged intervals in a rapidly rotating magnetosphere. We show that reconnection can be a significant pathway for internal plasma loss at Saturn. This counters the view of reconnection as a transient method of internal plasma loss at Saturn. These results, although directly relating to the magnetosphere of Saturn, have applications in the understanding of other rapidly rotating magnetospheres, including that of Jupiter and other astrophysical bodies.

Planetary period oscillations in Saturn's magnetosphere: Examining the relationship between abrupt changes in behavior and solar wind‐induced magnetospheric compressions and expansions

AbstractWe examine planetary period oscillations (PPOs) observed in Saturn's magnetospheric magnetic field data from the time of Saturn's equinox in 2009. In particular, we focus on the time period commencing February 2011, when the oscillations started to display sudden and unexpected changes in behavior at ~100–200 day intervals. These were characterized by large simultaneous changes in the amplitude of the northern and southern PPO systems, together with small changes in period and jumps in phase. Nine significant abrupt changes have been observed in the postequinox interval to date, commencing as the Sun started to emerge from a long extended solar minimum. We perform a statistical study to determine whether these modulations in PPO behavior were associated with changes in the solar and/or upstream solar wind conditions. We report that the upstream solar wind conditions show elevated values of solar wind dynamic pressure and density around the time of PPO behavioral transitions, as opposed to before and after these times. We suggest that abrupt changes in PPO behavior may be related to significant changes in the size of the Saturnian magnetosphere in response to varying solar wind conditions.

Doppler effects on periodicities in Saturn's magnetosphere

AbstractThe magnetosphere of Saturn exhibits a wide variety of periodic phenomena in magnetic fields, charged particles, and radio emissions. The periodicities are observed from a moving spacecraft, so an issue arises about the periodicities being influenced by the Doppler effects. Doppler effects can be investigated using models of the periodicities and then flying the spacecraft through the model, effectively measuring any Doppler phenomena with the simulation. Using 200 days of typical elliptical orbits from the Cassini mission at Saturn, three models were tested: an azimuthal wave (or “searchlight”) model, a radial wave (or “pond ripple”) model, and a model of an outwardly traveling spiral wave. The azimuthal wave model produced virtually no Doppler effects in the periodicities because its wave vector is nearly perpendicular to the spacecraft trajectory. The radial wave model generated strong Doppler effects of an upshifted and a downshifted signal (a dual period) on either side of the true period, because the wave vector is either parallel or antiparallel to the spacecraft trajectory. Being intermediate to the searchlight and radial waves, the spiral wave produced Doppler effects but only for low wave speeds (<10 RS/h). For higher wave speeds the Doppler effects were not as clear. The Doppler effects can be mitigated by employing only observations beyond ~15 RS where the spacecraft speed is low compared to the wave speed. The observed periodicities over the same 200 day interval do not show evidence of Doppler effects but generally display a single feature at the expected ~10.7 h period.

Effects of Saturn's magnetospheric dynamics on Titan's ionosphere

AbstractWe use the Cassini Radio and Plasma Wave Science/Langmuir probe measurements of the electron density from the first 110 flybys of Titan to study how Saturn's magnetosphere influences Titan's ionosphere. The data is first corrected for biased sampling due to varying solar zenith angle and solar energy flux (solar cycle effects). We then present results showing that the electron density in Titan's ionosphere, in the altitude range 1600–2400 km, is increased by about a factor of 2.5 when Titan is located on the nightside of Saturn (Saturn local time (SLT) 21–03 h) compared to when on the dayside (SLT 09‐15 h). For lower altitudes (1100–1600 km) the main dividing factor for the ionospheric density is the ambient magnetospheric conditions. When Titan is located in the magnetospheric current sheet, the electron density in Titan's ionosphere is about a factor of 1.4 higher compared to when Titan is located in the magnetospheric lobes. The factor of 1.4 increase in between sheet and lobe flybys is interpreted as an effect of increased particle impact ionization from ∼200 eV sheet electrons. The factor of 2.5 increase in electron density between flybys on Saturn's nightside and dayside is suggested to be an effect of the pressure balance between thermal plus magnetic pressure in Titan's ionosphere against the dynamic pressure and energetic particle pressure in Saturn's magnetosphere.

The latitudinal structure of the nightside outer magnetosphere of Saturn as revealed by velocity moments of thermal ions

Abstract. In this study we investigate the latitudinal behavior of the azimuthal plasma velocities in the outer magnetosphere of Saturn using the numerical ion moments derived from the measurements of the Cassini Plasma Spectrometer. One of the new results presented is that although these moments display some scatter, a significant positive correlation is found to exist between the azimuthal velocity and the plasma density, such that on average, the higher the density the higher the rotation speed. We also found that both the azimuthal velocity and the density anticorrelate with the magnitude of the radial component of the magnetic field and drop rapidly with increasing distance from the magnetic equator. The azimuthal velocities show periodic behavior with a period near the planetary rotation period, which can also be explained by the strong dependence on magnetic latitude, taking into account the flapping of the magnetodisk. It is thus found that the dense plasma near the magnetic equator rotates around the planet at high speed, while the dilute plasma at higher latitudes in the northern and southern hemispheres rotates significantly slower. The latitudinal gradient observed in the azimuthal speed is suggested to be a direct consequence of the sub-corotation of the plasma in the outer magnetosphere, with highest speeds occurring on field lines at lowest latitudes mapping to the rapidly rotating inner regions of the plasma sheet, and the speed falling as one approaches the lobe, where the field lines are connected to strongly sub-corotating plasma.

Asymmetries observed in Saturn's magnetopause geometry.

For over 10 years, the Cassini spacecraft has patrolled Saturn's magnetosphere and observed its magnetopause boundary over a wide range of prevailing solar wind and interior plasma conditions. We now have data that enable us to resolve a significant dawn‐dusk asymmetry and find that the magnetosphere extends farther from the planet on the dawnside of the planet by 7 ± 1%. In addition, an opposing dawn‐dusk asymmetry in the suprathermal plasma pressure adjacent to the magnetopause has been observed. This probably acts to reduce the size asymmetry and may explain the discrepancy between the degree of asymmetry found here and a similar asymmetry found by Kivelson and Jia (2014) using MHD simulations. Finally, these observations sample a wide range of season, allowing the “intrinsic” polar flattening (14 ± 1%) caused by the magnetodisc to be separated from the seasonally induced north‐south asymmetry in the magnetopause shape found theoretically (5 ± 1% when the planet's magnetic dipole is tilted away from the Sun by 10–17°).