# Dust clouds and plasmoids in Saturn's Magnetosphere as seen with four Cassini instruments

## TL;DR

This study analyzes Cassini data to identify a persistent dust cloud near Saturn and magnetic reconnection events producing plasmoids, suggesting a possible link between dust clouds and magnetic phenomena in Saturn's magnetosphere.

## Contribution

It provides the first detailed multi-instrument analysis of a long-lasting dust cloud and its potential connection to plasmoid formation in Saturn's magnetosphere.

## Key findings

- A coherent dust cloud persisted for six weeks near Saturn.
- Magnetic reconnection events produced plasmoids at Saturn's dawn side.
- Evidence suggests a possible link between dust clouds and plasmoid activity.

## Abstract

We revisit the evidence for a "dust cloud" observed by the Cassini spacecraft at Saturn in 2006. The data of four instruments are simultaneously compared to interpret the signatures of a coherent swarm of dust that would have remained near the equatorial plane for as long as six weeks. The conspicuous pattern, as seen in the dust counters of the Cosmic Dust Analyser (CDA), clearly repeats on three consecutive revolutions of the spacecraft. That particular cloud is estimated to about 1.36 Saturnian radii in size, and probably broadening. We also present a reconnection event from the magnetic field data (MAG) that leave behind several plasmoids like those reported from the Voyager flybys in the early 1980s. That magnetic bubbles happened at the dawn side of Saturn's magnetosphere. At their nascency, the magnetic field showed a switchover of its alignment, disruption of flux tubes and a recovery on a time scale of about 30 days. However, we cannot rule out that different events might have taken place. Empirical evidence is shown at another occasion when a plasmoid was carrying a cloud of tiny dust particles such that a connection between plasmoids and coherent dust clouds is probable.