BIROn - Birkbeck Institutional Research Online

    Kelvin-Helmholtz instability at Saturn's magnetopause: Cassini ion data analysis

    Wilson, R. J. and Delamere, P. A. and Bagenal, F. and Masters, Adam (2012) Kelvin-Helmholtz instability at Saturn's magnetopause: Cassini ion data analysis. Journal of Geophysical Research: Space Physics 117 (A3), ISSN 0148-0227.

    Full text not available from this repository.

    Abstract

    On 13 December 2004 Cassini, on approach to Saturn from the dawn flank, crossed the magnetopause multiple times. During these events the plasma spectrometer had a good field of view of both the magnetospheric and magnetosheath plasmas that often flow in nearly opposite directions (compared with more typical orientations that only allow one regime to be sampled). This fortunate viewing permitted ion plasma parameters to be measured, particularly flow speeds in both regions near simultaneously for the first time, facilitating detailed investigation of the multiple boundaries crossings. This allowed different plasma regions to be identified via analysis of thermal ion data (plasma velocity, densities and temperatures of protons and water group ions) and a search for Kelvin-Helmholtz instabilities to be undertaken. This interval had previously been studied by Masters et al. (2010), who identified a single Kelvin-Helmholtz vortex, however their study lacked ion plasma parameters and a measured flow speed. The new processed ion data set presented here supports their identification and identifies a second vortex ∼3 h earlier, highlighting the value of ion plasma parameters to such studies.

    Metadata

    Item Type: Article
    Keyword(s) / Subject(s): Cassini, Kelvin-Helmholtz, Saturn, ion, magnetosheath, magnetosphere
    School: Birkbeck Faculties and Schools > Faculty of Science > School of Natural Sciences
    Depositing User: Administrator
    Date Deposited: 02 Dec 2014 13:00
    Last Modified: 02 Aug 2023 17:14
    URI: https://eprints.bbk.ac.uk/id/eprint/11154

    Statistics

    Activity Overview
    6 month trend
    0Downloads
    6 month trend
    181Hits

    Additional statistics are available via IRStats2.

    Archive Staff Only (login required)

    Edit/View Item Edit/View Item