Love the images! And, by the by, one might assume that those bands should have little to do with seasonal / radiative heating effects at that distance (if I'm off base, let me know). Aside from the fact that they're at BOTH poles!
Can you say Birkeland's terella figure 248b?
(Chapter VI. On Possible Electric Phenomena in Solar Systems and Nebulae; near the top of the page)
http://www.plasma-universe.com/index.ph ... nd_Nebulae
In layman's terms he said that an unmagnetized globe will have evenly distributed spots, as in Fig 248a. With even minimal magnetization, spots appear in band(s) parallel to the equator. The banding latitude varies with either the strength of magnetization or with the strength of current (discharge tension).We will now pass on to experiments that in my opinion have brought about the most important discoveries in the long chain of experimental analogies to terrestrial and cosmic phenomena that I have produced. In the experiments represented in figs. 248 a-e, there are some small white patches on the globe, which are due to a kind of discharge that, under ordinary circumstances, is disruptive, and which radiates from points on the cathode. If the globe has a smooth surface and is not magnetised, the disruptive discharges come rapidly one after another, and are distributed more or less uniformly all over the globe (see a). On the other hand, if the globe is magnetised, even very slightly, the patches from which the disruptive discharges issue, arrange themselves then in two zones parallel with the magnetic equator of the globe; and the more powerfully the globe is magnetised, the nearer do they come to the equator (see b, c, d). With a constant magnetisation, the zones of patches will be found near the equator if the discharge-tension is low, but far from the equator if the tension is high.
[Figure 248 (a-e)]
- If the magnetization level is variable, but not the current, then the stronger the magnetization the closer the band(s) come to the equator, the weaker the magnetization the closer the band(s) come to the poles.
- On the other hand, if the current is variable, but not the magnetization level, then the weaker the discharge current the closer the bands(s) come to the equator, the stronger the discharge current the closer the band(s) come to the poles.
A) the magnetic field is non-variable and the discharge current is high enough to move the banding toward the poles, or
B) the discharge current is stable (at whatever current it is receiving, through whatever mechanism) but the magnetic field is proportionately weak enough that the discharge currents move toward the poles.
Really it seems like there's just some kind of relationship between the magnetization level, strength of discharge current and the position of the bands. IE, if the units of current are over some threshold per unit of magnetism, then the bands appear at the poles. Or, if the current is under that threshold, the bands migrate toward the equator...
So, I guess sat sums up my potential implications for Neptune...
*Yanks his Yoghurt doll's string*
"May the Schwartz be with you!"
Cheers,
~Michael Gmirkin