A Rotating Azimuthally Distributed Auroral Current System on Saturn Revealed by the Cassini Spacecraft

Stunning aurorae are mainly produced when accelerated electrons travel along magnetic field lines to collide with the atmosphere. The motion of electrons often corresponds to the evolution of a magnetic field-aligned current system. In the terrestrial magnetosphere, the current system is formed at t...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Astrophysical journal. Letters 2021-10, Vol.919 (2), p.L25
Main Authors: Guo, R. L., Yao, Z. H., Dunn, W. R., Palmaerts, B., Sergis, N., Grodent, D., Badman, S. V., Ye, S. Y., Pu, Z. Y., Mitchell, D. G., Zhang, B. Z., Achilleos, N., Coates, A. J., Wei, Y., Waite, J. H., Krupp, N., Dougherty, M. K.
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Aurorae
Auroras
Aérospatiale, astronomie & astrophysique
Cassini
Cassini mission
Electrons
Energetic neutral atoms
Energy resources
Energy sources
Field aligned currents
Magnetic fields
Magnetosphere
Neutral atoms
Night
Physical, chemical, mathematical & earth Sciences
Physique, chimie, mathématiques & sciences de la terre
Planetary magnetic fields
Planetary magnetospheres
Saturn
Space science, astronomy & astrophysics
Spacecraft
Terrestrial environments
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Summary:Stunning aurorae are mainly produced when accelerated electrons travel along magnetic field lines to collide with the atmosphere. The motion of electrons often corresponds to the evolution of a magnetic field-aligned current system. In the terrestrial magnetosphere, the current system is formed at the night-side sector, and thus produces an auroral bulge at night. Due to the different energy sources between Saturn and the Earth, it is expected that their auroral current systems are fundamentally different, although the specific auroral driver at Saturn is poorly understood. Using simultaneous measurements of the aurora, particles, magnetic fields, and energetic neutral atoms, we reveal that a chain of paired currents, each of which includes a downward and an upward current branch, is formed in Saturn's magnetosphere, which generates separated auroral patches. These findings inform similar auroral current structures between the Earth and Saturn, while the difference is that Saturn's unique mass and energy sources lead to a rotational characteristic.
ISSN:2041-8205
2041-8213
2041-8213
DOI:10.3847/2041-8213/ac26b5