Properties of Saturn's Magnetopause: I. Magnetic Structure and Geometry

BURTON, M.; ARRIDGE, C. S.; ACHILLEOS, N.; BERTUCCI, C.; DOUGHERTY, M. K.; KHURANA, K. K.; RUSSELL, C. T.; SMITH, E. J.; TSURUTANI, B. T.

Congreso; AGU Fall Meeting 2005; 2005

We present minimum variance analyses of the magnetopause crossings observed by the magnetometer on the Cassini spacecraft during the first five orbits of Saturn. The magnetopause is identified by an abrupt rotation of the magnetic field, as identified from a sliding-window nested minimum variance analysis [Sonnerup and Scheible 1998], and we associate this rotation with the magnetopause current layer (MPCL). We describe observations of magnetic structure about this current sheet which we interpret as evidence of magnetosheath waves, internal and external boundary layers, and the motion of the magnetopause in response to changes in dynamic pressure. The normal vectors to the magnetopause, as computed from our minimum variance analyses, are compared with established magnetopause surface models [Slavin et al. 1985; Maurice et al. 1996; Arridge et al. 2005]. This comparison indicates that the observed normals agree much more closely with models that have less flared geometry.