No Evidence for Time Variation in Saturn’s Internal Magnetic Field

Abstract The time variation of a planetary magnetic field can reveal important aspects planet's interior structure. Searching for in fields other than Earth has proved challenging owing to the small number spacecraft missions flown date, but such detection may be possible given sufficiently long baseline comparison. Here we leverage 38 years magnetometer measurements search Saturn’s internal field. To isolate signal variation, remove contemporary high-resolution model, derived from Cassini data, as well best-fitting external magnetodisk model each four past mission data sets: Pioneer 11 (1979), Voyager 1 (1980), 2 (1981), and Saturn Orbit Insertion (2004). We then attempt fit resulting with an axisymmetric model. Overall, find no evidence on multidecadal timescale. Our results lend support existence stably stratified layer have comparative planetology implications Jupiter’s structure dynamics.