HR: 0800h
AN: P51A-1407    [Abstracts]
TI: Narrowband Emissions within Saturn's Density Torus
AU: * Farrell, W M
EM: william.farrell@gsfc.nasa.gov
AF: NASA/Goddard SFC, Code 695, Greenbelt, MD 20771 United States
AU: Desch, M D
EM: michael.desch@gsfc.nasa.gov
AF: NASA/Goddard SFC, Code 695, Greenbelt, MD 20771 United States
AU: Kaiser, M L
EM: michael.l.kaiser@gsfc.nasa.gov
AF: NASA/Goddard SFC, Code 695, Greenbelt, MD 20771 United States
AU: Gurnett, D A
EM: dag@space.physics.uiowa.edu
AF: Dept. of Physics and Astronomy, Univ. of Iowa, Iowa City, IA 52242 United States
AU: Kurth, W S
EM: wsk@space.physics.uiowa.edu
AF: Dept. of Physics and Astronomy, Univ. of Iowa, Iowa City, IA 52242 United States
AU: Hospodarsky, G
EM: gbh@space.physcis.uiowa.edu
AF: Dept. of Physics and Astronomy, Univ. of Iowa, Iowa City, IA 52242 United States
AU: Canu, P
EM: Patrick.Canu@cetp.ispl.fr
AF: CETP/CNRS/IPSL, 10-12 Ave. de l'Europe, Velizy, 78140 France
AU: Wahlund, J
EM: jwe@irfu.se
AF: Swedish Inst. of Space Physics, Box 537, Uppsala, SE-751 Sweden
AB: The Cassini spacecraft made a close approach to Saturn on 1 July 2004, flying through the rings to within ~1.4 RS of the planet. The Cassini Radio and Plasma Wave Science (RPWS) investigation detected a clear emission at the upper hybrid resonance frequency that enabled the identification of a high density plasma torus surrounding Saturn, with peak plasma densities located at about 2.3 RS and a very abruptly decreasing plasma density at the torus inner edge. Emitted from this inner torus edge is a set of narrowband emissions similar in nature to those emitted from the terrestrial plasmapause. We will discuss the morphology of the narrowband emission observations, including their drifts in frequency as a function of time. We will also place these observations in context of ongoing theoretical analysis of narrowband emission from density gradients.
DE: 6275 Saturn
DE: 2772 Plasma waves and instabilities
SC: Planetary Sciences [P]
MN: 2004 AGU Fall Meeting