Electrostatic solitary structures observed at Saturn

Abstract

We report observations of electric field solitary structures, measured by the Cassini Radio and Plasma Wave Science (RPWS) instrument in the vicinity of Saturn's magnetosphere with ambient magnetic fields that range from ~0.1 nT to 8000 nT. The peak-to-peak electric field amplitudes of the observed solitary structures range from a few μV/m to 10 mV/m and show a slight trend toward larger amplitude electric field pulses being associated with larger ambient magnetic fields. The time durations of the pulses range from a few hundred μs to a few 10's of milliseconds. The solitary waves appear in plasma boundary regions or in regions with abrupt changes in the magnetic field. The solitary waves tend to be observed when the dipole antenna is aligned with the magnetic field.