TY  - GEN
A1  - Woodfield, Emma E.
A1  - Horne, Richard B.
A1  - Glauert, Sarah A.
A1  - Menietti, John D.
A1  - Shprits, Yuri Y.
A1  - Kurth, William S.
T1  - Formation of electron radiation belts at Saturn by Z-mode wave acceleration
T2  - Postprints der Universität Potsdam : Mathematisch-Naturwissenschaftliche Reihe
N2  - At Saturn electrons are trapped in the planet's magnetic field and accelerated to relativistic energies to form the radiation belts, but how this dramatic increase in electron energy occurs is still unknown. Until now the mechanism of radial diffusion has been assumed but we show here that in-situ acceleration through wave particle interactions, which initial studies dismissed as ineffectual at Saturn, is in fact a vital part of the energetic particle dynamics there. We present evidence from numerical simulations based on Cassini spacecraft data that a particular plasma wave, known as Z-mode, accelerates electrons to MeV energies inside 4 R-S (1 R-S = 60,330 km) through a Doppler shifted cyclotron resonant interaction. Our results show that the Z-mode waves observed are not oblique as previously assumed and are much better accelerators than O-mode waves, resulting in an electron energy spectrum that closely approaches observed values without any transport effects included.
T3  - Zweitveröffentlichungen der Universität Potsdam : Mathematisch-Naturwissenschaftliche Reihe - 1032 
KW  - astrophysical plasmas
KW  - giant planets
KW  - magnetospheric physics
KW  - diffusion
KW  - pitch angle
KW  - plasma
KW  - radio
KW  - region
Y1  - 2020
U6  - http://nbn-resolving.de/urn/resolver.pl?urn:nbn:de:kobv:517-opus4-468342
SN  - 1866-8372
IS  - 1032
ER  -