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Penetration of external plasma into a rotation‐driven magnetosphere
Author(s) -
Hill Tom
Publication year - 2016
Publication title -
journal of geophysical research: space physics
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
eISSN - 2169-9402
pISSN - 2169-9380
DOI - 10.1002/2016ja023430
Subject(s) - magnetosphere , magnetosphere of saturn , physics , solar wind , plasma , penetration (warfare) , magnetosphere of jupiter , saturn , polar wind , electron , astrophysics , astronomy , magnetopause , planet , nuclear physics , operations research , engineering
Thomsen et al. (2016) provide a new statistical analysis of nearly 8 years of Cassini Plasma Spectrometer data, revealing that hot electrons injected from Saturn's outer magnetosphere penetrate into the inner magnetosphere but only to a distinct inner edge whose location is independent of external solar wind properties. This result is fully consistent with the hypothesis that centrifugally driven interchange motion is responsible for plasma transport between inner and outer magnetosphere.