Published in

American Geophysical Union, Geophysical Research Letters, 21(43), 2016

DOI: 10.1002/2016gl071069

Links

Tools

Export citation

Search in Google Scholar

Saturn's quasiperiodic magnetohydrodynamic waves

This paper is made freely available by the publisher.
This paper is made freely available by the publisher.

Full text: Download

Green circle
Preprint: archiving allowed
Green circle
Postprint: archiving allowed
Orange circle
Published version: archiving restricted
Data provided by SHERPA/RoMEO

Abstract

Quasi-periodic ???1-hour fluctuations have been recently reported by numerous instruments on-board the Cassini spacecraft. The interpretation of the sources of these fluctuations has remained elusive to date. Here we provide an explanation for the origin of these fluctuations using magnetometer observations. We find that magnetic field fluctuations at high northern latitudes are Alfv??nic, with small amplitudes (???0.4 nT), and are concentrated in wave-packets similar to those observed in Kleindienst et al. [2009]. The wave-packets recur periodically at the northern magnetic oscillation period. We use a magnetospheric box model to provide an interpretation of the wave periods. Our model results suggest that the observed magnetic fluctuations are second harmonic Alfv??n waves standing between the northern and southern ionospheres in Saturn???s outer magnetosphere