Saturn’s Magnetic Field (Magnetosphere)

A simplified visualization of Saturn's magnetic field, or magnetosphere.

More Download Options: NASA Scientific Visualization Studio

These visualizations present simplified models of these planetary magnetospheres, designed to illustrate their scale, and basic features of their structure and impacts of the magnetic axes offset from the planetary rotation axes. The magnetic field structure is represented by gold/copper lines. The semi-transparent grey mesh in the distance represents the boundary of the magnetosphere. Major satellites of the planetary system are also included. When appropriate for the time window of the visualization, the Voyager flyby trajectories are indicated.

The models are constructed by combining the fields of a simple magnetic dipole, a current sheet (whose intensity is tuned match the scale of the magnetotail), and occasionally a ring current. This is a variation of the simple Luhmann-Friesen magnetosphere model. They are meant to be representative of the basic characteristics of the planetary magnetic fields. Some features NOT included are longitudes of magnetic poles to a standard planetary coordinate system and offsets of the dipole center from the planetary center.