On the equatorial transport of Saturn's ionosphere as driven by a dust‐ring current system

The diurnal modulation of the dust ring current of Saturn's D‐ring causes field‐aligned Birkeland currents to flow near the dawn and dusk terminators and close across the mid‐latitude ionosphere. One consequence of this current system is the establishment of a global convection pattern in the equatorial outer ionosphere. Outward motion of the dayside ionospheric plasma as well as the corresponding absorption effect of the inner ring system might be one physical cause of the depletion of the ionospheric content of Saturn.