Quasi-Periodic Emissions in Saturn's Magnetosphere and Their Effects on Electrons

Abstract

Investigations into quasiperiodic (QP) whistler mode emissions within Saturn's magnetosphere have uncovered distinctive characteristics of these emissions, which display a nearly periodic rising tone structure in the wave spectrogram, characterized by modulation periods of several minutes. These QP emissions are predominantly observed at low L-shells around 5 and near the magnetic equator. Utilizing a quasi-linear analysis framework, we evaluate the effects of these waves on the dynamics of energetic electrons. Our analysis suggests that these QP emissions can efficiently cause the loss of electrons within the energy range from 10 to 60 keV over a timescale of tens of minutes. By incorporating these findings into Fokker-Planck simulations, we find minimal acceleration effects. This study is the first to examine QP emissions and their implications for energetic electron dynamics in Saturn's magnetosphere, highlighting their potentially significant contribution to the magnetospheric processes and dynamics.