Latest Cassini HFR-RPWS Direction Finding Results at Saturn

The Cassini spacecraft arrived at Saturn on july 1st 2004, starting a 4 year exploration of the kronian environment. Its high frequency receiver HFR, part of the Radio and Plasma Wave Science experiment (RPWS), has direction finding (DF) capabilities, i.e. allows us to retrieve the flux intensity of an incoming electromagnetic wave, its direction of arrival, and its polarization state. We have applied the DF inversion techniques to the data stored since last summer. Two radio components have been mainly studied : the SKR (saturn kilometric radiation coming the auroral regions) and the SEDs (saturn electrical discharges caused by atmospheric lightnings). While the results confirm the Voyager 1 & 2 data, they also unveil puzzling features that remain to be explained.