Satellite tori at Saturn

The inner satellites of Saturn are icy bodies imbedded in a plasma environment in which they are continuously bombarded by energetic ions, corotating plasma, and solar radiation. Laboratory sputtering experiments indicate that this should result in the injection of substantial amounts of neutral H, H2, OH, H2O, and O2 into the magnetosphere. The atomic processes affecting these neutrals and the neutrals and ions formed from them are modeled, and the steady state neutral and ion densities expected in the plasma tori of Enceladus, Dione-Tethys, and Rhea are calculated. Comparison with observations shows that recombination can limit the Enceladus and Dione-Tethys tori to the observed densities, but that transport rates of at least 4 x 10 to the -8th Saturn radii squared/s are required to limit torus densities at Rhea to the observed values.