Evidence of magnetic reconnection from wave measurements at Saturn's magnetopause: Cassini RPWS observations

Alessandro Retinò (1) , A. Masters (2) , A. Vaivads (3) , Y. V. Khotyaintsev (3) , M. Fujimoto (2) , S. Kasahara (2) , S. V. Badman (4) , Patrick Canu (1) , Thomas Chust (1) , Ronan Modolo (5) , D. A. Gurnett (6) , M. K. Dougherty (7)

1 LPP - Laboratoire de Physique des Plasmas
2 ISAS - Institute of Space and Astronautical Science
3 IRF - Swedish Institute of Space Physics [Uppsala / Kiruna]
4 Department of Physics [Lancaster]
5 HELIOS - LATMOS
6 Department of Physics and Astronomy [Iowa City]
7 Department of Physics [Imperial College London]

Magnetic reconnection is a universal mechanism that is responsible for major energy conversion in planetary magnetospheres. Recent theoretical estimations suggest that reconnection is infrequent at Saturn's magnetopause and that it is not a major driver of the dynamics of the kronian magnetosphere. This scenario need however to be confirmed by in situ observations at the magnetopause current sheet. Evidence of reconnection in the form of accelerated plasma jets is difficult at Saturn's magnetopause due to limitations in the field of view of particle detectors. Here we show evidence of reconnection for one magnetopause event by using measurements of low frequency waves (lower-hybrid, whistlers, plasma/upper hybrid). We discuss how wave measurements can be used as evidence of reconnection in planetary magnetospheres.

Domaines: Physique des plasmas [physics.plasm-ph]; Astrophysique [astro-ph]

Alessandro Retinò, A. Masters, A. Vaivads, Y. V. Khotyaintsev, M. Fujimoto, et al.. Evidence of magnetic reconnection from wave measurements at Saturn's magnetopause: Cassini RPWS observations. European Planetary Science Congress 2014, 2014, Noordwijkerhout, Netherlands. pp.EPSC2014-802. ⟨hal-02800162⟩