Cassini observations of Saturn's polar cusp

In this poster we describe observations from Saturn's southern polar cusp taken by the Cassini spacecraft in January and February 2007. A total of seven cusps were observed in a total of three orbits of the spacecraft. Two of these cusps contained evidence of significant plasma acceleration and heating and associated diamagnetic effects. Double cusps were seen on two separate orbits through the high-latitude dayside region. We present the evidence for the presence of magnetosheath-like electron distributions inside the magnetosphere and show both energy-latitude ion dispersions and low-energy ion cut-offs. We interpret these dispersions and cut-offs in terms of reconnection between the kronian and interplanetary magnetic fields with the solar wind and use the observations to estimate the location of the reconnection X-line. Finally the observations are compared and contrasted with similar observations in Earth's magnetosphere.