HR: 1330h
AN: P32A-1075    [PDF]
TI: Are existing magnetic measurements sufficiently accurate to determine Saturn­_s rotation period ?
AU: * Yu, Z
EM: zjyu@igpp.ucla.edu
AF: University of California, Los Angeles, 405 Hilgard Ave, IGPP/UCLA, Los Angeles, CA 90095-1567 United States
AU: Russell, C
AF: University of California, Los Angeles, 405 Hilgard Ave, IGPP/UCLA, Los Angeles, CA 90095-1567 United States
AB: Radio observations from Voyager 2 have been used to define the Saturn­_s current rotation period with an uncertainly of 7 seconds. This technique assumes that the repetition of radio bursts is controlled by an asymmetry in the magnetic field that rotates with the planet. We attempt to use the magnetic measurement obtained by Pioneer and Voyager to more directly determine the rotation period. We calculate the longitude of the projection of Saturn­_s magnetic dipole on the equatorial plane derived from the available flyby magnetic measurements (P11,VG1,VG2) with varying rotation rates using new ephemeris data recently made available by JPL Navigation Ancillary Information Facility (NAIF) and distributed as SPICE kernels. This analysis suggests that the rotation period of the interior of Saturn is most probably two seconds longer than the currently used value of 10 hours 39 minutes and 22.32 seconds.
DE: 6275 Saturn
SC: Planetary Sciences [P]
MN: 2003 Fall Meeting