NASA Logo

NTRS

NTRS - NASA Technical Reports Server

Back to Results
Titan Ion Composition at Magnetosphere-Ionosphere Transition RegionUsing Cassini Plasma Spectrometer (CAPS) Ion Mass Spectrometer (IMS) ion composition data, we will investigate the compositional changes at the transition region between Saturn's magnetospheric flow and Titan's upper ionosphere. It is this region where scavenging of Titan's upper ionosphere can occur, where it is then dragged away by the magnetospheric flow as cold plasma for Saturn's magnetosphere. This cold plasma may form plumes as originally proposed by (1) during the Voyager 1 epoch. This source of cold plasma may have a unique compositional signature such as methane group ions. Water group ions that are observed in Saturn's outer magnetosphere (2,3) are relatively hot and probably come from the inner magnetosphere where they are born from fast neutrals escaping Enceladus (4) and picked up in the outer magnetosphere as hot plasma (5). This scenario will be complicated by pickup methane ions within Titan's mass loading region, as originally predicted by (6) based on Voyager 1 data and observationally confirmed by (3,7) using CAPS IMS data. But, CH4(+) ions or their fragments can only be produced as pickup ions from Titan's exosphere which can extend beyond the transition region of concern here, while CH5(+) ions can be scavenged from Titan's ionosphere. We will investigate these possibilities.
Document ID
20070005091
Acquisition Source
Goddard Space Flight Center
Document Type
Conference Paper
Authors
Sittler, Edward C.
(NASA Goddard Space Flight Center Greenbelt, MD, United States)
Hartle, R. E.
(NASA Goddard Space Flight Center Greenbelt, MD, United States)
Shappirio, M.
(NASA Goddard Space Flight Center Greenbelt, MD, United States)
Simpson, D. J.
(NASA Goddard Space Flight Center Greenbelt, MD, United States)
COoper, J. F.
(NASA Goddard Space Flight Center Greenbelt, MD, United States)
Burger, M. H.
(NASA Goddard Space Flight Center Greenbelt, MD, United States)
Johnson, R. E.
(Virginia Univ. VA, United States)
Bertucci, C.
(Imperial Coll. of Science and Technology United Kingdom)
Luhman, J. G.
(California Univ. CA, United States)
Ledvina, S. A.
(California Univ. CA, United States)
Szego, K.
(Hungarian Academy of Sciences Hungary)
Coates, A. J.
(Mullard Space Science Lab. Dorking, United Kingdom)
Young, D. T.
(Southwest Research Inst. United States)
Date Acquired
August 24, 2013
Publication Date
September 5, 2006
Subject Category
Lunar And Planetary Science And Exploration
Meeting Information
Meeting: 38th Annual Division of Planetary Sciences Meeting
Location: Pasadena, CA
Country: United States
Start Date: October 9, 2006
End Date: October 13, 2006
Sponsors: American Astronomical Society
Distribution Limits
Public
Copyright
Other

Available Downloads

There are no available downloads for this record.
No Preview Available