HR: 11:00h
AN: SM12A-03    [Abstracts]
TI: Interchange events in Saturn's magnetosphere: Frequency, spatial distribution, and implications for plasma transport
AU: * Crary, F J
EM: fcrary@swri.edu
AF: Southwest Research Institute, 6220 Culebra Road San Antonio, TX 78229, San Antonio, TX 78229 United States
AU: Burch, J L
EM: jburch@swri.edu
AF: Southwest Research Institute, 6220 Culebra Road San Antonio, TX 78229, San Antonio, TX 78229 United States
AU: Young, D T
EM: dyoung@swri.edu
AF: Southwest Research Institute, 6220 Culebra Road San Antonio, TX 78229, San Antonio, TX 78229 United States
AU: Hill, T W
EM: hill@rice.edu
AF: Rice University, Physics and Astronomy Department MS 108 Houston, TX 77251-1892,
AU: Coates, A J
EM: ajc@mssl.ucl.ac.uk
AF: Mullard Space Science Laboratory, Holmbury St. Mary Dorking Surrey RH5 6NT ENGLAND,
AU: Tohmsen, M F
EM: mthomsen@lanl.gov
AF: Los Alamos National Laboratory, Space and Atmospheric Science Group NIS-1 Mail Stop: D-466,
AU: Andre, N
EM: Nicolas.Andre@cesr.fr
AF: CESR, 9 Avenue Colonel Roche 31500 Toulouse FRANCE,
AU: Blanc, M
EM: blanc@oamp.fr
AF: CESR, 9 Avenue Colonel Roche 31500 Toulouse FRANCE,
AU: Dougherty, M
AF: Imperial College London, Space & Atmospheric Physics Group The Blackett Laboratory, Imperial College London, Prince Consort Road, London SW7 2BW UK, AU: Russel, C T
EM: ctrussel@igpp.ucla.edu
AF: UCLA, IGPP, UCLA, Box 951567, Los Angeles, CA 90095,
AB: During the Cassini spacecraft's first orbits around Saturn, numerous transient events were observed in the planet's inner magnetosphere. These events are characterized by an abrupt increase in the magnetic field strength, a simultaneous disappearance of the low energy ion and electron populations and the appearance of a hot electron population with energies between one hundred and a few thousand eV. In some cases, these events are associated with time-dispersed energetic particle events. These characteristics are consistent with the rapid interchange of flux tubes and the injection of hot, tenuous plasma from the outer magnetosphere. This process, also observed by the Galileo spacecraft at Jupiter, is associated with the radial transport of plasma and the centrifugally-driven Raylegh-Taylor instability. We present a statistical analysis of these events, describing their average properties, frequency of occurrence, and spatial distribution. We identify the regions where these events are most frequent, with the regions where radial transport is most vigorous.
DE: 2730 Magnetosphere--inner
DE: 2760 Plasma convection
DE: 5737 Magnetospheres (2756)
SC: SPA-Magnetospheric Physics [SM]
MN: 2005 Joint Assembly