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On Saturnian cosmic ray cutoff rigidities
Author(s) -
Sauer Herbert H.
Publication year - 1980
Publication title -
geophysical research letters
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 2.007
H-Index - 273
eISSN - 1944-8007
pISSN - 0094-8276
DOI - 10.1029/gl007i003p00215
Subject(s) - physics , earth's magnetic field , dipole , cosmic ray , cutoff , saturn , magnetosphere , magnetic dipole , magnetic field , charged particle , cosmic cancer database , field (mathematics) , planet , astrophysics , astronomy , computational physics , ion , quantum mechanics , mathematics , pure mathematics
The theory of charged particle motion in a dipole field has been well developed, however because of the importance to the geomagnetic field of contributions other than dipolar, interest in the subject has remained primarily pedagogical over the past decade. Recent measurements by Ness et al. and Smith et al. have shown that the magnetic field of Saturn is essentially dipolar, with the axis of the dipole approximately aligned with the planetary rotation axis. This note briefly sketches the dipole geomagnetic cutoff theory and demonstrates the scaling required for its applicability to energetic particle measurements in the vicinity of Saturn.