Effect of Intermittent Structures on Electron Heating in Saturn's Magnetosphere: Cassini Observations

In Saturn's magnetosphere, the plasma temperature increases with radial distance, requiring a heating mechanism to counteract the adiabatic cooling effect of expanding plasma. To explore potential heating source, we perform a statistical study about intermittent structures and intermittent heating in Saturn's magnetosphere based on the observations from the Cassini spacecraft. Partial Variance of Increments (PVI) technique is used to measure the intermittency of magnetic field and identify the intermittent structures. It is found that the electron temperature has a rising trend as the increase of magnetic field intermittency, implying the occurrence of electron heating in the intermittent structures. Additionally, the turbulence heating rate also exhibits an increasing trend as the increase of probability density of intermittent structures. Our results evidence the effect of intermittent heating in the Saturn's magnetosphere, and suggest that intermittent structures with high magnetic field intermittency play an important role in turbulence heating. In Saturn's magnetosphere, the plasma temperature increases with radial distance, requiring a heating mechanism to counteract the adiabatic cooling effect of expanding plasma. Intermittent structure, which has been widely investigated in solar wind turbulence to explain the solar wind plasma heating, have never been considered in Saturn's magnetosphere. In this work, we investigate the intermittent structures and intermittent heating in Saturn's magnetosphere based on the observations from the Cassini spacecraft. We identify a positive correlation between electron temperature and magnetic field intermittency, as well as a positive correlation between turbulence heating rate and the probability density of intermittent structures. These results suggest that intermittent structures contribute to turbulent heating in Saturn's magnetosphere. Intermittent structures are identified in Saturn's magnetosphere based on partial variance of increment techniqueElectron temperature has a rising trend as the intermittency increases, indicating the occurrence of intermittent electron heatingTurbulence heating rate increases as intermittent density rises, implying a contribution of intermittent structure to turbulence heating