Substorms at Earth and Saturn: A Comparison

RUSSELL, CHRISTOPHER; DOUGHERTY, MICHELE; BERTUCCI, CESAR; WEI, HANYING; JACKSON, CATRIONA

Congreso; 37th COSPAR Scientific Assembly; 2008

Substorms play an important role in the energization and transport of plasmas in planetary magnetospheres, including removing from the magnetosphere the mass added by moons. This mass shedding occurs through rapid reconnection in the near tail resulting in dipolarization on the magnetospheric side of the reconnection point and plasmoid formation down tail. Saturnian substorms occasionally have a brief, 3-hour, growth phase which affects the flaring of the tail boundary. The timing of the rotational phase of Saturn and the orbital phase of Titan appear to control the onset of the substorms. Thus Saturnian substorms are similar to terrestrial substorms in many ways. Sometimes they are triggered; they have growth phases; the tail flares; there are dipolarizations and plasmoid formations.