RT Journal Article
SR Electronic
T1 The Titan -1:0 Nodal Bending Wave in Saturn's Ring C
JF Science
JO Science
FD American Association for the Advancement of Science
SP 690
OP 694
DO 10.1126/science.241.4866.690
VO 241
IS 4866
A1 Rosen, Paul A.
A1 Lissauer, Jack J.
YR 1988
UL http://science.sciencemag.org/content/241/4866/690.abstract
AB The most prominent oscillatory feature observed in the Voyager 1 radio occultation of Saturn's rings is identified as a one-armed spiral bending wave excited by Titan's -1:0 nodal inner vertical resonance. Ring partides in a bending wave move in coherently inclined orbits, warping the local mean plane of the rings. The Titan -1:0 wave is the only known bending wave that propagates outward, away from Saturn, and the only spiral wave yet observed in which the wave pattern rotates opposite to the orbital direction of the ring particles. It is also the first bending wave identified in ring C. Modeling the observed feature with existing bending wave theory gives a surface mass density of ∼0.4 g/cm2 outside the wave region and a local ring thickness of [unknown]5 meters, and suggests that surface mass density is not constant in the wave region.