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Research output: Contribution to Journal/Magazine › Journal article › peer-review
Research output: Contribution to Journal/Magazine › Journal article › peer-review
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TY - JOUR
T1 - Dynamic auroral storms on Saturn as observed by the Hubble Space Telescope
AU - Nichols, J. D.
AU - Badman, S. V.
AU - Baines, K. H.
AU - Brown, R. H.
AU - Bunce, E. J.
AU - Clarke, J. T.
AU - Cowley, S. W. H.
AU - Crary, F. J.
AU - Dougherty, M. K.
AU - Gerard, J.-C.
AU - Grocott, Adrian
AU - Grodent, Denis
AU - Kurth, W.S.
AU - Melin, Henrik
AU - Mitchell, D. G.
AU - Pryor, W. R.
AU - Stallard, T. S.
N1 - ©2014. The Authors. This is an open access article under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits use, distribution and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.
PY - 2014/5/28
Y1 - 2014/5/28
N2 - We present observations of significant dynamics within two UV auroral storms observed on Saturn using the Hubble Space Telescope in April/May 2013. Specifically, we discuss bursts of auroral emission observed at the poleward boundary of a solar wind-induced auroral storm, propagating at ∼330% rigid corotation from near ∼01 h LT toward ∼08 h LT. We suggest that these are indicative of ongoing, bursty reconnection of lobe flux in the magnetotail, providing strong evidence that Saturn’s auroral storms are caused by large-scale flux closure. We also discuss the later evolution of a similar storm and show that the emission maps to the trailing region of an energetic neutral atom enhancement. We thus identify the auroral form with the upward field-aligned continuity currents flowing into the associated partial ring current.
AB - We present observations of significant dynamics within two UV auroral storms observed on Saturn using the Hubble Space Telescope in April/May 2013. Specifically, we discuss bursts of auroral emission observed at the poleward boundary of a solar wind-induced auroral storm, propagating at ∼330% rigid corotation from near ∼01 h LT toward ∼08 h LT. We suggest that these are indicative of ongoing, bursty reconnection of lobe flux in the magnetotail, providing strong evidence that Saturn’s auroral storms are caused by large-scale flux closure. We also discuss the later evolution of a similar storm and show that the emission maps to the trailing region of an energetic neutral atom enhancement. We thus identify the auroral form with the upward field-aligned continuity currents flowing into the associated partial ring current.
KW - saturn
KW - auroras
KW - magnetosphere
KW - magnetotail
U2 - 10.1002/2014GL060186
DO - 10.1002/2014GL060186
M3 - Journal article
VL - 41
SP - 3323
EP - 3330
JO - Geophysical Research Letters
JF - Geophysical Research Letters
SN - 0094-8276
IS - 10
ER -