The Global Current System in Saturn's Inner Magnetosphere

Magnetic field oscillations observed in the inner magnetosphere of Saturn exhibit a periodicity at the approximate rate of the planetary rotation. It was previously suggested that this periodicity is attributed to a field-aligned current flowing between the planetary hemispheres and rotating with the planet. By breaking the symmetry of the north and south ring current - region 2 current systems, this rotating field-aligned current produces a characteristic signature in the azimuthal magnetic field measured at Cassini. In this paper we explore this hypothesis with the use of an empirical magnetic field model. We modify the Khurana et al. [2007] magnetic field model by adding two additional current systems: (1) a partial ring current system driven by the azimuthally asymmetric hot plasma pressure derived from Cassini global INCA and in-situ MIMI measurements; and (2) an inter-hemispheric field-aligned current. We will use 3D visualization tools to analyze the resulting structure of global current system and its effect on the magnetic field