Statistical distribution of ion cyclotron waves in Saturn’s inner magnetosphere: A survey of Cassini measurements between 2004 and 2016
- 1Wuhan University, School of Electronic Information, Department of Space Physics, China (longminyi@whu.edu.cn)
- 2CAS Center for Excellence in Comparative Planetology, Hefei, China
- 3Department of Earth and Space Sciences, Southern University of Science and Technology, Shenzhen, China
- 4Key Laboratory of Earth and Planetary Physics, Institute of Geology and Geophysics, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing, China
Based on Cassini observations from 2004 to 2016, we perform a comprehensive analysis of the statistical distribution of the occurrence rate, averaged amplitude, wave normal angle (WNA), ellipticity and power spectral intensity of ion cyclotron waves in Saturn’s inner magnetosphere. Our results show that ion cyclotron waves mainly occur between the orbits of Enceladus and Dione near the equatorial region (λ<20°), with higher occurrence rates in the northern hemisphere than the southern hemisphere. The averaged wave amplitudes vary between 0.1–2 nT with a strong day-night asymmetry and a pronounced minimum at the equator. Saturnian ion cyclotron waves are predominantly left-handed polarized with small WNAs near the equator, and become linearly polarized with larger WNAs at higher latitudes. The major wave power occurs frequently at frequencies of 0.5-1.2 fw+, where fw+ is the equatorial gyrofrequency of H2O+ ions, with the strongest intensity (>~10 nT2/Hz) at L~6.5 statistically present in the midnight sector.
How to cite: Long, M., Cao, X., Ni, B., Gu, X., Ye, S., Yao, Z., Wu, S., and Xu, Y.: Statistical distribution of ion cyclotron waves in Saturn’s inner magnetosphere: A survey of Cassini measurements between 2004 and 2016, EGU General Assembly 2022, Vienna, Austria, 23–27 May 2022, EGU22-2110, https://doi.org/10.5194/egusphere-egu22-2110, 2022.
