Can Cassini magnetic field measurements be used to find the rotation period of Saturn's interior?

We investigate the determination of the rotation period of Saturn's interior using magnetic field measurements from Cassini. First, we vary the rotation period and search for the period that yields the smallest rms misfit of a magnetic field model to the data. Second, we search for the period t...

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Bibliographic Details
Published inGeophysical research letters Vol. 37; no. 11
Main Authors Sterenborg, M. Glenn, Bloxham, Jeremy
Format Journal Article
LanguageEnglish
Published Washington, DC Blackwell Publishing Ltd 01.06.2010
American Geophysical Union
John Wiley & Sons, Inc
Subjects
Axisymmetric
Cassini
Cassini mission
Earth sciences
Earth, ocean, space
Exact sciences and technology
Geophysics
magnetic field
Magnetic field measurement
magnetic field modeling
Magnetic fields
Magnetism
Mathematical models
Planetology
Planets
Saturn
Saturn's rotation period
Searching
models
magnetic field
Saturn
rotation
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Summary:We investigate the determination of the rotation period of Saturn's interior using magnetic field measurements from Cassini. First, we vary the rotation period and search for the period that yields the smallest rms misfit of a magnetic field model to the data. Second, we search for the period that yields the most power in the non‐axisymmetric components of a magnetic field model. Neither method enables us to determine the rotation period. However, we are able to place a bound on the magnitude of the non‐axisymmetric component of Saturn's magnetic field finding it to be no greater than 4–5% of the axisymmetric component.
Bibliography:ark:/67375/WNG-QV97ZG7G-Z
istex:9E4C9B6E895B3683962C170DFE376471BF4123B1
Tab-delimited Table 1.
ArticleID:2010GL043250
ObjectType-Article-1
SourceType-Scholarly Journals-1
ObjectType-Feature-2
content type line 23
ISSN:0094-8276
1944-8007
DOI:10.1029/2010GL043250