Discovery of Alfven Waves Planetward of Saturn's Rings

Between April and September 2017 in the final stages of the Cassini Saturn Orbiter mission the spacecraft executed 22 orbits passing planetward of the innermost ring, the D-ring. During all periapsis passes oscillations were detected in the azimuthal magnetic field components on typical time scales of a few minutes. We argue that these time-varying magnetic signals detected on the spacecraft are also primarily time-varying in the plasma frame. Furthermore, we show that nearly all signals exhibit a spatial feature, namely a magnetic node near the effective field line equator. We propose that the oscillations are associated with Alfven waves excited in local field line resonances, most likely driven from global sources.

Automated summary

The research indicates that the oscillations detected in the magnetic field during periapsis passes of the Cassini Saturn Orbiter spacecraft are likely associated with Alfven waves, which are primarily time-varying in the plasma frame. Additionally, nearly all signals exhibit a magnetic node feature near the equator of the effective field line.