Dawn-dusk asymmetries in rotating magnetospheres: Lessons from modeling Saturn

Abstract

Spacecraft measurements reveal perplexing dawn-dusk asymmetries of field and plasma properties in the magnetospheres of Saturn and Jupiter. Here we describe a previously unrecognized source of dawn-dusk asymmetry in a rapidly rotating magnetosphere. We analyze two magnetohydrodynamic simulations, focusing on how flows along and across the field vary with local time in Saturn's dayside magnetosphere. As plasma rotates from dawn to noon on a dipolarizing flux tube, it flows away from the equator along the flux tube at roughly half of the sound speed (Cs), the maximum speed at which a bulk plasma can flow along a flux tube into a lower pressure region. As plasma rotates from noon to dusk on a stretching flux tube, the field-aligned component of its centripetal acceleration decreases and it flows back toward the equator at speeds typically smaller than 12Cs. Correspondingly, the plasma sheet remains far thicker and the field less stretched in the afternoon than in the morning. Different radial force balance in the morning and afternoon sectors produce asymmetry in the plasma sheet thickness and a net dusk-to-dawn flow inside of L = 15 or equivalently, a large-scale electric field (E) oriented from postnoon to premidnight, as reported from observations. Morning-afternoon asymmetry analogous to that found at Saturn has been observed at Jupiter, and a noon-midnight component of E cannot be ruled out.