HR: 1330h
AN: SM13A-06    [Abstracts]
TI: Warm flux tubes in Saturn's cool E-ring plasma torus
AU: * Leisner, J S
EM: jleisner@ess.ucla.edu
AF: IGPP, UCLA, Box 951567, Los Angeles, CA 90095
AU: Russell, C T
EM: ctrussell@igpp.ucla.edu
AF: IGPP, UCLA, Box 951567, Los Angeles, CA 90095
AU: Khurana, K K
EM: kkhurana@igpp.ucla.edu
AF: IGPP, UCLA, Box 951567, Los Angeles, CA 90095
AU: Dougherty, M K
EM: m.dougherty@imperial.ac.uk
AF: Imperial College, London, The Blackett Laboratory, Imperial College, London, United Kingdom
AU: Andre, N
EM: Nicolas.Andre@cesr.fr
AF: CESR, CESR, Toulouse, France
AB: As Cassini passed through Saturn's E ring, the magnetometer onboard observed a number of diamagnetic cavities isolated in time from any other disturbance. The decrease in magnetic pressure within these flux tubes implies the presence of an additional plasma energy density of up to 1 keV/cm³. The magnetic fields within these cavities are more dipolar and hence less stressed than their neighbors, suggesting that they may contain less mass or are traveling at a lower azimuthal velocity relative to their surroundings. The magnetometer also observed at about 6 Saturn radii, outward from these tubes, an irregular transition from predominantly cool to predominantly warm flux tubes. In the jovian magnetosphere, at the outer edge of the Io torus, a similar boundary has been found. Well inside the location of the jovian boundary, inward moving flux tubes have been reported in the Galileo magnetometer data. These tubes have enhanced field strength and have been interpreted as depleted flux tubes. The saturnian flux tubes exhibit magnetic strength decreases, but they still may contain less plasma than their surroundings. In short, the two differently appearing phenomena may both be different expressions of the same process.
DE: 2730 Magnetosphere--inner
DE: 2736 Magnetosphere/ionosphere interactions
DE: 5737 Magnetospheres (2756)
DE: 5759 Rings and dust
DE: 6275 Saturn
SC: SPA-Magnetospheric Physics [SM]
MN: 2005 Joint Assembly