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Plasma electrons above Saturn's main rings: CAPS observations
Mullard Space Science Laboratory, University College London, Surrey, UK
Mullard Space Science Laboratory, University College London, Surrey, UK
Mullard Space Science Laboratory, University College London, Surrey, UK
Southwest Research Institute, San Antonio, Texas, USA
Southwest Research Institute, San Antonio, Texas, USA
Observatoire Midi-Pyrenées, Toulouse, France
Engineering Physics, University of Virginia, Charlottesville, Virginia, USA
Engineering Physics, University of Virginia, Charlottesville, Virginia, USA
Los Alamos National Laboratory, Los Alamos, New Mexico, USA
Goddard Space Flight Center, Greenbelt, Maryland, USA
Mullard Space Science Laboratory, University College London, Surrey, UK
We present observations of thermal (∼0.6–100eV) electrons observed near Saturn's main rings during Cassini's Saturn Orbit Insertion (SOI) on 1 July 2004. We find that the intensity of electrons is broadly anticorrelated with the ring optical depth at the magnetic footprint of the field line joining the spacecraft to the rings. We see enhancements corresponding to the Cassini division and Encke gap. We suggest that some of the electrons are generated by photoemission from ring particle surfaces on the illuminated side of the rings, the far side from the spacecraft. Structure in the energy spectrum over the Cassini division and A-ring may be related to photoelectron emission followed by acceleration, or, more likely, due to photoelectron production in the ring atmosphere or ionosphere.
Received 11 February 2005; accepted 2 May 2005; published 18 June 2005.
Citation: (2005), Plasma electrons above Saturn's main rings: CAPS observations, Geophys. Res. Lett., 32, L14S09, doi:10.1029/2005GL022694.
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