Yao, ZH;
Grodent, D;
Ray, LC;
Rae, IJ;
Coates, AJ;
Pu, ZY;
Lui, AT;
... Dunn, AR; + view all
(2017)
Two fundamentally different drivers of dipolarizations at Saturn.
Journal of Geophysical Research-space Physics
, 122
(4)
pp. 4348-4356.
10.1002/2017JA024060.
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Abstract
Solar wind energy is transferred to planetary magnetospheres via magnetopause reconnection, driving magnetospheric dynamics. At giant planets like Saturn, rapid rotation and internal plasma sources from geologically active moons also drive magnetospheric dynamics. In both cases, magnetic energy is regularly released via magnetospheric current redistributions that usually result in a change of the global magnetic field topology (named substorm dipolarization at Earth). Besides this substorm dipolarization, the front boundary of the reconnection outflow can also lead to a strong but localized magnetic dipolarization, named a reconnection front. The enhancement of the north-south magnetic component is usually adopted as the indicator of magnetic dipolarization. However, this field increase alone cannot distinguish between the two fundamentally different mechanisms. Using measurements from Cassini, we present multiple cases whereby we identify the two distinct types of dipolarization at Saturn. A comparison between Earth and Saturn provides new insight to revealing the energy dissipation in planetary magnetospheres.
| Type: | Article |
|---|---|
| Title: | Two fundamentally different drivers of dipolarizations at Saturn |
| Open access status: | An open access version is available from UCL Discovery |
| DOI: | 10.1002/2017JA024060 |
| Publisher version: | http://doi.org/10.1002/2017JA024060 |
| Language: | English |
| Additional information: | This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License. The images or other third party material in this article are included in the article’s Creative Commons license, unless indicated otherwise in the credit line; if the material is not included under the Creative Commons license, users will need to obtain permission from the license holder to reproduce the material. To view a copy of this license, visit http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ |
| Keywords: | Dipolarization; reconnection; magnetosphere; plasma sheet |
| 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 Space and Climate Physics |
| URI: | https://discovery-pp.ucl.ac.uk/id/eprint/1555263 |
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