Work

Statistical Survey of Magnetic Flux Integral Quantities in Saturn's Magnetosphere

Year: 2025

Type: article

Abstract: Magnetic flux integral quantities (e.g., flux tube entropy, flux tube content) are conserved quantities under the frozen‐in assumption. The change of these quantities often indicates the violation of the frozen‐in condition (e.g., interchange instability). In this study, we combine the Cassini CAPS and CHEMS moments data with a steady‐state magnetic field model (i.e., the Caudal model) to estimate the flux tube mass and flux tube entropy in Saturn's magnetosphere. Our statistical survey found that the flux tube mass rapidly decreases with radial distance away from Saturn in the inner magnetosphere and roughly levels out in the middle magnetosphere. This indicates that the radial transport processes could occur via a double‐reconnection process in the inner magnetosphere, while the radial transport processes appear to be more advective in the middle magnetosphere. Notice that Saturn's magnetosphere is stabilized by a radially increasing profile of flux tube entropy and destabilized by a radially decreasing profile of flux tube content. In this study, we also estimate the expected penetration location by using the flux tube interchange stability formalism developed by Southwood and Kivelson (1987, https://doi.org/10.1029/ja092ia01p00109 ). The results show that flux tube entropy can play a crucial role in braking the injections, while the flux tube content has a relatively smaller influence on the injected flux tube, being consistent with our previous case study by Wing et al. (2022, https://doi.org/10.3847/1538‐4357/ac85b2 ).

Source: Journal of Geophysical Research Space Physics

DOI: 10.1029/2025ja034299