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A New Ring Current Model for Saturn
Author(s) -
Carbary J. F.
Publication year - 2019
Publication title -
journal of geophysical research: space physics
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
eISSN - 2169-9402
pISSN - 2169-9380
DOI - 10.1029/2019ja026560
Subject(s) - ring current , saturn , current (fluid) , ring (chemistry) , gaussian , physics , curl (programming language) , log normal distribution , harmonic , atomic physics , quadratic equation , computational physics , magnetic field , geometry , astrophysics , mathematics , magnetosphere , chemistry , statistics , quantum mechanics , thermodynamics , computer science , organic chemistry , planet , programming language
The ring current of Saturn is obtained by taking the curl of the observed magnetic field. An analytical model of this ring current can then be obtained by fitting it to a lognormal in ρ and a Gaussian in z . Local time dependence is included as a harmonic expansion in ϕ for coefficients of the lognormal; radial dependence is included as a quadratic expansion in ρ of the width of the Gaussian. In this model, the ring current peaks at ~0.25 MA/R S 2 at ~10 R S on the nightside near ~1 hr. The ring current strength minimizes at ~0.17 MA/R S 2 on the dayside near ~16 hr. The cross‐sectional shape of the ring current is a teardrop extending from ~5 to ~20 R S or more.