Observations of mirror waves and plasma depletion layer upstream of Saturn's magnetopause

The two inbound traversals of the Saturn's magnetosheath by Voyagers 1 and 2 have been studied using plasma and magnetic field data. In a great portion of the subsolar magnetosheath, large-amplitude compressional waves are observed at low frequency (approximately 0.1 f(sub p)) in a high-beta plasma regime. The fluctuations of the magnetic field magnitude and ion density are anticorrelated, as are those of the magnetic and thermal pressures. The normals to the structures are almost orthogonal to the background field, and the Doppler ratio is on the average small. Even though the data do not allow the determination of the ion thermal anisotropy, the observations are consistent with values of T(sub perpendicular)/T(sub parallel) greater than 1, producing the onset of the mirror instability. All the above features indicate that the waves should be most probably identified with mirror modes. One of the two magnetopause crossings is of the high-shear type and the above described waves are seen until the magnetopause. The other crossing is of the low-shear type and, similarly to what has been observed at Earth, a plasma depletion occurs close to the magnetopause. In this layer, waves with smaller amplitude, presumably of the mirror mode, are present together with higher-frequency waves showing a transverse component.