Electrons and cosmic ray produced protons in Saturn's inner magnetosphere

Technical Report · Mon Dec 31 23:00:00 EST 1984

OSTI ID:5939474

Northrop, T G; Fillius, W

The Cerenkov detector on Pioneer 11 previously observed Crand protons above 600 MeV in Saturn's inner magnetosphere, mixed with a poorly understood background of energetic electrons. The electron count is separated from the proton counts and the first-order angular distributions are established for each species. To do this the theoretical relationships among the harmonic coefficients of the count rate is used as a function of spacecraft roll angle. The majority of the counts were electrons with energy above several MeV; i.e., with drift periods shorter than the satellite orbital resonance. The electrons have isotropic pitch angle distributions, and the protons pancake over most of the region between Mimas and the rings, although there is a small region of dumbbell proton distributions in the vicinity of Janus and epimetheus.

• Research Organization: National Aeronautics and Space Administration, Greenbelt, MD (USA). Goddard Space Flight Center
• OSTI ID: 5939474
• Report Number(s): NASA-TM-87469
• Country of Publication: United States
• Language: English

Related Subjects

640107* -- Astrophysics & Cosmology-- Planetary Phenomena
71 CLASSICAL AND QUANTUM MECHANICS
GENERAL PHYSICS
ACCELERATORS
ANGULAR DISTRIBUTION
ATMOSPHERES
CHERENKOV COUNTERS
CYCLIC ACCELERATORS
DISTRIBUTION
ELECTRON DENSITY
ENERGY SPECTRA
MEASURING INSTRUMENTS
PIONEER SPACE PROBES
PLANETARY ATMOSPHERES
PLANETARY MAGNETOSPHERES
PLANETS
PROTON DENSITY
RADIATION DETECTORS
SATURN PLANET
SPACE VEHICLES
SPATIAL DISTRIBUTION
SPECTRA
SYNCHROCYCLOTRONS
VEHICLES