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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 - Field dipolarization in Saturn's magnetotail with planetward ion flows and energetic particle flow bursts
T2 - evidence of quasi-steady reconnection
AU - Jackman, C. M.
AU - Thomsen, M. F.
AU - Mitchell, D. G.
AU - Sergis, N.
AU - Arridge, C. S.
AU - Felici, M.
AU - Badman, S. V.
AU - Paranicas, C.
AU - Jia, X.
AU - Hospodarksy, G. B.
AU - Andriopoulou, M.
AU - Khurana, K. K.
AU - Smith, A. W.
AU - Dougherty, M. K.
N1 - ©2015. 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 - 2015/5
Y1 - 2015/5
N2 - We present a case study of an event from 20 August (day 232) of 2006, when the Cassini spacecraft was sampling the region near 32 R-S and 22 h LT in Saturn's magnetotail. Cassini observed a strong northward-to-southward turning of the magnetic field, which is interpreted as the signature of dipolarization of the field as seen by the spacecraft planetward of the reconnection X line. This event was accompanied by very rapid (up to similar to 1500 km s(-1)) thermal plasma flow toward the planet. At energies above 28 keV, energetic hydrogen and oxygen ion flow bursts were observed to stream planetward from a reconnection site downtail of the spacecraft. Meanwhile, a strong field-aligned beam of energetic hydrogen was also observed to stream tailward, likely from an ionospheric source. Saturn kilometric radiation emissions were stimulated shortly after the observation of the dipolarization. We discuss the field, plasma, energetic particle, and radio observations in the context of the impact this reconnection event had on global magnetospheric dynamics.
AB - We present a case study of an event from 20 August (day 232) of 2006, when the Cassini spacecraft was sampling the region near 32 R-S and 22 h LT in Saturn's magnetotail. Cassini observed a strong northward-to-southward turning of the magnetic field, which is interpreted as the signature of dipolarization of the field as seen by the spacecraft planetward of the reconnection X line. This event was accompanied by very rapid (up to similar to 1500 km s(-1)) thermal plasma flow toward the planet. At energies above 28 keV, energetic hydrogen and oxygen ion flow bursts were observed to stream planetward from a reconnection site downtail of the spacecraft. Meanwhile, a strong field-aligned beam of energetic hydrogen was also observed to stream tailward, likely from an ionospheric source. Saturn kilometric radiation emissions were stimulated shortly after the observation of the dipolarization. We discuss the field, plasma, energetic particle, and radio observations in the context of the impact this reconnection event had on global magnetospheric dynamics.
KW - SHEET BOUNDARY-LAYER
KW - PLASMA SHEET
KW - MAGNETIC-FIELD
KW - MAGNETOSPHERIC SUBSTORMS
KW - NIGHTSIDE MAGNETOSPHERE
KW - ALIGNED BEAMS
KW - ELECTRON
KW - DYNAMICS
KW - DISTRIBUTIONS
KW - SPECTROMETER
U2 - 10.1002/2015JA020995
DO - 10.1002/2015JA020995
M3 - Journal article
VL - 120
SP - 3603
EP - 3617
JO - Journal of Geophysical Research: Space Physics
JF - Journal of Geophysical Research: Space Physics
SN - 2169-9380
IS - 5
ER -