Planetary period oscillations in Saturn's magnetosphere: coalescence and reversal of northern and southern periods in late northern spring
File(s)
Author(s)
Type
Journal Article
Abstract
We investigate planetary period oscillations (PPOs) in Saturn's magnetosphere using Cassini magnetic field and Saturn kilometric radiation (SKR) data over the interval from late 2012 to the end of 2015, beginning ~3 years after vernal equinox and ending ~1.5 years before northern solstice. Previous studies have shown that the northern and southern PPO periods converged across equinox from southern summer values ~10.8 h for the southern system and ~10.6 h for the northern system and near coalesced ~1 year after equinox, before separating again with the southern period ~10.69 h remaining longer than the northern ~10.64 h. We show that these conditions ended in mid-2013 when the two periods coalesced at ~10.66 h and remained so until mid-2014, increasing together to longer periods ~10.70 h. During coalescence the two systems were locked near magnetic antiphase with SKR modulations in phase, a condition in which the effects of the generating rotating twin vortex flows in the two ionospheres reinforce each other via hemisphere-to-hemisphere coupling. The magnetic-SKR relative phasing indicates the dominance of postdawn SKR sources in both hemispheres, as was generally the case during the study interval. In mid-2014 the two periods separated again, the northern increasing to ~10.78 h by the end of 2015, similar to the southern period during southern summer, while the southern period remained fixed near ~10.70 h, well above the northern period during southern summer. Despite this difference, this behavior resulted in the first enduring reversal of the two periods, northern longer than southern, during the Cassini era.
Date Issued
2016-10-25
Date Acceptance
2016-09-17
Citation
Journal of Geophysical Research: Space Physics, 2016, 121 (10), pp.9829-9862
ISSN
2169-9402
Publisher
American Geophysical Union
Start Page
9829
End Page
9862
Journal / Book Title
Journal of Geophysical Research: Space Physics
Volume
121
Issue
10
Copyright Statement
© 2016 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.
Sponsor
Science and Technology Facilities Council (STFC)
Science and Technology Facilities Council
Imperial College Trust
Science and Technology Facilities Council (STFC)
Science and Technology Facilities Council (STFC)
The Royal Society
Science and Technology Facilities Council [2006-2012]
Science and Technology Facilities Council (STFC)
Identifier
http://gateway.webofknowledge.com/gateway/Gateway.cgi?GWVersion=2&SrcApp=PARTNER_APP&SrcAuth=LinksAMR&KeyUT=WOS:000388965900034&DestLinkType=FullRecord&DestApp=ALL_WOS&UsrCustomerID=1ba7043ffcc86c417c072aa74d649202
Grant Number
ST/K001051/1
ST/N002776/1
N/A
ST/M003094/1
ST/N000692/1
RP140004
ST/K001051/1
ST/P006922/1
Subjects
Science & Technology
Physical Sciences
Astronomy & Astrophysics
KILOMETRIC RADIATION PERIODICITY
RADIO ASTRONOMY OBSERVATIONS
FIELD-ALIGNED CURRENTS
MAGNETIC-FIELD
ROTATION PERIOD
SOLAR-WIND
EQUINOX
MODULATIONS
VOYAGER-2
ORIGIN
0201 Astronomical and Space Sciences
0401 Atmospheric Sciences
Publication Status
Published
Date Publish Online
2016-09-20