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Detailed Reference Information |
Tsintikidis, D., Kurth, W.S., Gurnett, D.A. and Barbosa, D.D. (1995). Study of dust in the vicinity of dione using the Voyager 1 Plasma Wave Instrument. Journal of Geophysical Research 100: doi: 10.1029/94JA02357. issn: 0148-0227. |
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The flyby of Voyager 1 at Saturn yield the detection of a large variety of plasma waves, for example, chorus, hiss, and electron cyclotron harmonics. Just before the outbound equator crossing, the Voyager 1 plasma wave instrument detected a strong, well-defined low-frequency enhancement in signal levels. Initially, it was thought that this enhancement was due to plasma waves, but more recently it was suggested that dust impacts might be at least partial contributors. In this report we present evidence that dust impacts are partly responsible for the low-frequency enhancement. A new method of analysis which relies mainly on the 16-channel spectrum analyzer has been used to derive the dust impact rate. The available wideband waveform observations (which have been used previously to study dust impacts) were useful for calibrating the impact rate from the spectrum analyzer data. The mass and hence size of the dust particles were also obtained by analyzing the response of the plasma wave spectrum analyzer. The results show that the region sampled by Voyager 1 is populated by dust particles that have rms masses of up to a few times 10-11 g and sizes of up to a few microns. The dust particle number density is of the order of 10-3 m-3. The optical depth of the region sampled by the spacecraft is approximately 10-6. The particle population is centered at 2470(¿150) km south of the equatorial plane and has a north-south FWHM (full-width, half-maximum) thickness of 4130(¿450) km. The dust may be part of the E ring or a localized ringlet associated with Dione. ¿American Geophysical Union 1995 |
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Abstract |
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Keywords
Magnetospheric Physics, Magnetosphere interactions with satellites and rings, Magnetospheric Physics, Plasma waves and instabilities, Planetology, Fluid Planets, Rings and dust |
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Publisher
American Geophysical Union 2000 Florida Avenue N.W. Washington, D.C. 20009-1277 USA 1-202-462-6900 1-202-328-0566 service@agu.org |
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