Cowley, SWH;
Achilleos, N;
Bradley, TJ;
Provan, G;
Bunce, EJ;
Hunt, GJ;
(2020)
Seasonal Dependence of the Magnetospheric Drag Torque on Saturn’s Northern and Southern Polar Thermospheres and its Relation to the Periods of Planetary Period Oscillations.
Journal of Geophysical Research: Space Physics
, 125
(9)
, Article e2020JA028247. 10.1029/2020ja028247.
Preview |
Text
Achilleos_2020JA028247.pdf - Published Version Download (953kB) | Preview |
Abstract
We calculate the magnetospheric drag torques on Saturn's northern and southern polar thermospheres during late southern summer in 2008 and northern spring in 2012–2013 using previously derived profiles of ionospheric meridional coupling currents determined from high‐latitude Cassini magnetic field data. We show that the drag torques in the “winter” and “summer” auroral regions are near equal at ~2.3 × 1016 N m, contrary to the recent discussion of Brooks et al. (2019, https://doi.org/10.1002/2019JA026870) who suggest that significant seasonal differences should occur in these regions. Instead, seasonally dependent torques occur in the adjacent polar open field regions, where the “winter” and “summer” torques are ~0.3 × 1016 and ~1.8 × 1016 N m, respectively. We derive a simple rotating disc model of the polar thermosphere and estimate the speed of the poleward flow from midlatitudes required to balance these torques in steady state, finding values of tens of m s−1 consistent with previous numerical modeling. Comparison of the calculated torques with concurrent periods of the northern and southern planetary period oscillations (PPOs) does not suggest a direct connection between these quantities as proposed by Brooks et al., 2019, showing at the least that significant additional factors must be involved. We further note some issues with their scenario for dual modulation of radio emissions, previous observations having shown that the principal oscillatory PPO field‐aligned currents that modulate the emissions rotate in the auroral region with periods ~10.7 ± 0.1 hr, propagating through the more slowly rotating ~15–20 hr period outer magnetospheric plasma, with implications for the proposed “atmospheric flywheel” picture.
| Type: | Article |
|---|---|
| Title: | Seasonal Dependence of the Magnetospheric Drag Torque on Saturn’s Northern and Southern Polar Thermospheres and its Relation to the Periods of Planetary Period Oscillations |
| Open access status: | An open access version is available from UCL Discovery |
| DOI: | 10.1029/2020ja028247 |
| Publisher version: | https://doi.org/10.1029/2020JA028247 |
| Language: | English |
| Additional information: | This is an open access article under the CC BY license (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited. |
| 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 |
| URI: | https://discovery-pp.ucl.ac.uk/id/eprint/10109601 |
Archive Staff Only
 |
View Item |
