Plasmas in Saturn's magnetosphere

Passage of Pioneer 11 through Saturn's magnetosphere revealed a third magnetosphere with a high plasma abundance. The dominant ion species appears to be oxygen. The plasma is located in a large torus about Saturn, including the orbits of Dione and Tethys. The plasma are rigidly corotating with the planet to distances of at least 10 Saturn radii. Bulk flows appear to move in the corotation direction, but at speeds lower than those expected from rigid corotation. The ions appear to be the ionization products of water frost on the surface of the ring material.