Mechanisms of Saturn's Near-Noon Transient Aurora: In Situ Evidence From Cassini Measurements
File(s)Yao_et_al-2017-Geophysical_Research_Letters.pdf (2.31 MB)
Published version
OA Location
Author(s)
Type
Journal Article
Abstract
Although auroral emissions at giant planets have been observed for decades, the physical mechanisms of aurorae at giant planets remain unclear. One key reason is the lack of simultaneous measurements in the magnetosphere while remote sensing of the aurora. We report a dynamic auroral event identified with the Cassini Ultraviolet Imaging Spectrograph (UVIS) at Saturn on 13 July 2008 with coordinated measurements of the magnetic field and plasma in the magnetosphere. The auroral intensification was transient, only lasting for ∼30 min. The magnetic field and plasma are perturbed during the auroral intensification period. We suggest that this intensification was caused by wave mode conversion generated field-aligned currents, and we propose two potential mechanisms for the generation of this plasma wave and the transient auroral intensification. A survey of the Cassini UVIS database reveals that this type of transient auroral intensification is very common (10/11 time sequences, and ∼10% of the total images).
Date Issued
2017-11-18
Date Acceptance
2017-10-20
Citation
GEOPHYSICAL RESEARCH LETTERS, 2017, 44 (22), pp.11217-11228
ISSN
0094-8276
Publisher
American Geophysical Union
Start Page
11217
End Page
11228
Journal / Book Title
GEOPHYSICAL RESEARCH LETTERS
Volume
44
Issue
22
Copyright Statement
©2017. The Authors.
This is an open access article under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/), which permits use, distribution and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.
This is an open access article under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/), which permits use, distribution and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.
Identifier
http://gateway.webofknowledge.com/gateway/Gateway.cgi?GWVersion=2&SrcApp=PARTNER_APP&SrcAuth=LinksAMR&KeyUT=WOS:000419102300001&DestLinkType=FullRecord&DestApp=ALL_WOS&UsrCustomerID=1ba7043ffcc86c417c072aa74d649202
Subjects
Science & Technology
Physical Sciences
Geosciences, Multidisciplinary
Geology
HUBBLE-SPACE-TELESCOPE
BURSTY BULK FLOWS
PI2 PULSATIONS
STATISTICAL-ANALYSIS
SUBSTORM ONSET
PLASMA SHEET
ALFVEN WAVES
MAGNETOSPHERE
RECONNECTION
MAGNETOPAUSE
MD Multidisciplinary
Meteorology & Atmospheric Sciences
Publication Status
Published