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Cassini Radio Occultation Observations of Saturn's Ionosphere: Electron Density Profiles From 2005 to 2013

Withers, Paul; Dalba, P. A.; Moore, L. +2 more

A set of electron density profiles of Saturn's ionosphere acquired by Cassini radio occultations is archived at the NASA Planetary Data System. However, the reference surface that defines zero altitude in these profiles is unknown and appears to vary by 1,500 km at fixed latitude. These profiles are immensely valuable for addressing questions pert…

On Current Sheets and Associated Density Spikes in Titan's Ionosphere as Seen From Cassini

Edberg, Niklas J. T.; Vigren, Erik; Bertucci, Cesar +3 more

The Cassini spacecraft made in-situ measurements of Titan's plasma environment during 126 close encounters between 2004 and 2017. Here we report on observations from the Radio and Plasma Waves System/Langmuir probe instrument (RPWS/LP) from which we have observed, primarily on the outbound leg, a localized increase of the electron density by up to…

Magnetopause Dynamics at Saturn as Observed by Cassini

Allen, Robert C.; Mo, Wenli; Paranicas, Chris +2 more

The occurrence and impacts of magnetopause processes at outer planets, particularly magnetic reconnection and the Kelvin-Helmholtz instability (KHI), remains unresolved. From a list of 2,114 magnetopause crossings at Saturn spanning the full duration of the Cassini mission, magnetic field and low-energy plasma properties are analyzed for each cros…