Quasi thermal noise spectroscopy in the inner magnetosphere of Saturn with Cassini/RPWS: Electron temperatures and density

Michel Moncuquet; Alain Lecacheux; Nicole Meyer; Baptiste Cecconi; William S. Kurth

doi:10.1029/2005GL022508

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Quasi thermal noise spectroscopy in the inner magnetosphere of Saturn with Cassini/RPWS: Electron temperatures and density

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Quasi thermal noise spectroscopy in the inner magnetosphere of Saturn with Cassini/RPWS: Electron temperatures and density

Michel Moncuquet, Alain Lecacheux, Nicole Meyer, Baptiste Cecconi and William S. Kurth

Geophysical research letters, Vol.32(L20S02), pp.1-5

06/01/2005

DOI: 10.1029/2005GL022508

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Abstract

On 1 July 2004, the Cassini spacecraft performed its Saturn orbit insertion, twice crossing the equatorial plane between the G and F rings. The radio HF receiver observed a peak at the upper-hybrid frequency and weakly banded emissions having well-defined minima at gyroharmonics. We show that through most of the encounter, these emissions do not result from instabilities, but instead are the quasi-thermal noise that can be calculated from the classical theory of plasma fluctuations. The spectroscopy of this noise yields the electron density, the core and the halo temperatures in the range 2.3 < L/RS < 7, -1.2 < z/RS < +0.1. For the first time, we measure the core temperature of the Kronian plasma torus to be about 0.5 eV in the ring plane at ~2.5RS, and increasing to ~6 eV at 7RS. From the noise minima at the gyroharmonics, we also deduce the magnetic field strength, which agrees with the Cassini's magnetometer data to better than 2%.

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Details

Title: Subtitle: Quasi thermal noise spectroscopy in the inner magnetosphere of Saturn with Cassini/RPWS: Electron temperatures and density
Creators: Michel Moncuquet - Laboratoire d’études spatiales et d’instrumentation en astrophysique
Alain Lecacheux - Laboratoire d’études spatiales et d’instrumentation en astrophysique
Nicole Meyer - Laboratoire d'études spatiales et d'instrumentation en astrophysique
Baptiste Cecconi - University of Iowa
William S. Kurth - University of Iowa
Resource Type: Journal article
Publication Details: Geophysical research letters, Vol.32(L20S02), pp.1-5
DOI: 10.1029/2005GL022508
ISSN: 0094-8276
eISSN: 1944-8007
Publisher: American Geophysical Union
Language: English
Date published: 06/01/2005
Academic Unit: Physics and Astronomy
Record Identifier: 9984455548402771

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