Hydrodynamics of Saturn’s Dense Rings

Seiß, M.; Spahn, F.

doi:10.1051/mmnp/20116409

Cited by 3 publications

(3 citation statements)

References 75 publications

(130 reference statements)

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“…The power law we used to describe the shear viscosity's dependency on the surface mass density is a parameterization introduced by Schmit & Tscharnuter (1995) for small intervals of surface mass density. It is a reasonable simplification often used in hydrodynamic descriptions of planetary rings (Seiß & Spahn 2011). However, it might prove to be very interesting to further analyze the viscosity's dependency on the surface mass density with a kinetic approach, especially in the limit of small, vanishing densities that occur at gap edges.…”

Section: Applicationmentioning

confidence: 99%

Sharp Gap Edges in Dense Planetary Rings: An Axisymmetric Diffusion Model

Grätz

Seiß

Schmidt

et al. 2019

ApJ

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One of the most intriguing facets of Saturn's rings are the sharp edges of gaps in the rings where the surface density abruptly drops to zero. This is despite of the fact that the range over which a moon transfers angular momentum onto the ring material is much larger. Recent UVIS-scans of the edges of the Encke and Keeler gap show that this drop occurs over a range approximately equal to the rings' thickness. Borderies et al. (1982Borderies et al. ( , 1989 show that this striking feature is likely related to the local reversal of the usually outward directed viscous transport of angular momentum in strongly perturbed regions. In this article we revise the Borderies et al. (1989) model using a granular flow model to define the shear and bulk viscosities, ν and ζ, and incorporate the angular momentum flux reversal effect into the axisymmetric diffusion model we developed for gaps in dense planetary rings (Grätz et al. 2018). Finally, we apply our model to the Encke and Keeler division in order to estimate the shear and bulk viscosities in the vicinity of both gaps.

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Section: Applicationmentioning

confidence: 99%

Sharp Gap Edges in Dense Planetary Rings: An Axisymmetric Diffusion Model

Grätz

Seiß

Schmidt

et al. 2019

ApJ

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“…Outside of the scattering region we describe the ring with hydrodynamical equations (Seiß and Spahn, 2011;Schmidt et al, 2001;Spahn et al, 1997). We model the thickness of the ring through the granular ring temperature, and use vertically averaged balance equations.…”

Section: Hydrodynamic Flowmentioning

confidence: 99%

Vertical structures induced by embedded moonlets in Saturn’s rings

Hoffmann

Seiß

Salo

et al. 2015

Icarus

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“…This condition is not always fulfilled in Saturn's rings, especially in regions of very low densities (see e.g. discussion in Seiß & Spahn 2011). Propellers are mainly located in the A ring.…”

Section: Comparison With N-body Simulationsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Hydrodynamic Simulations of Moonlet-induced Propellers in Saturn’s Rings: Application to Blériot

Seiß

Albers

Sremčević

et al. 2018

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One of the biggest successes of the Cassini mission is the detection of small moons (moonlets) embedded in Saturns rings which cause S-shaped density structures in their close vicinity, called propellers (Spahn & Sremčević 2000;Tiscareno et al. 2006;Sremčević et al. 2007). Here, we present isothermal hydrodynamic simulations of moonlet-induced propellers in Saturn's A ring which denote a further development of the original model (Spahn & Sremčević 2000). We find excellent agreement between these new hydrodynamic and corresponding N-body simulations. Furthermore, the hydrodynamic simulations confirm the predicted scaling laws (Spahn & Sremčević 2000) and the analytical solution for the density in the propeller gaps (Sremčević et al. 2002). Finally, this mean field approach allows us to simulate the pattern of the giant propeller Blériot, which is too large to be modeled by direct N-body simulations. Our results are compared to two stellar occultation observations by the Cassini Ultraviolet Imaging Spectrometer (UVIS), that intersect the propeller Blériot. Best fits to the UVIS optical depth profiles are achieved for a Hill radius of 590 m, which implies a moonlet diameter of about 860 m. Furthermore, the model favours a kinematic shear viscosity of the surrounding ring material of ν 0 = 340 cm 2 s −1 , a dispersion velocity in the range of 0.3 cm s −1 < c 0 < 1.5 cm s −1 , and a fairly high bulk viscosity 7 < ξ 0 /ν 0 < 17. These large transport values might be overestimated by our isothermal ring model and should be reviewed by an extended model including thermal fluctuations.

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Hydrodynamics of Saturn’s Dense Rings

Cited by 3 publications

References 75 publications

Sharp Gap Edges in Dense Planetary Rings: An Axisymmetric Diffusion Model

Sharp Gap Edges in Dense Planetary Rings: An Axisymmetric Diffusion Model

Vertical structures induced by embedded moonlets in Saturn’s rings

Hydrodynamic Simulations of Moonlet-induced Propellers in Saturn’s Rings: Application to Blériot

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