Transport of energetic electrons into Saturn's inner magnetosphere

Abstract

We present energetic electron data obtained by Cassini's Magnetospheric Imaging Instrument in the inner magnetosphere of Saturn. We find here that inward transport and energization processes are consistent with conservation of the first two adiabatic invariants of motion. We model several injections near local midnight, one injection has a maximum energy of hundreds of keV, that are consistent with data. We also present mission-averaged data that shows an injection boundary in radial distance. Inward of this boundary, fluxes fall off toward the planet. Around this inner boundary, strong local time asymmetries are present in the averaged data with peak fluxes near midnight. Copyright 2010 by the American Geophysical Union.