Statistics – Computation
Scientific paper
Oct 2007
adsabs.harvard.edu/cgi-bin/nph-data_query?bibcode=2007dps....39.4107h&link_type=abstract
American Astronomical Society, DPS meeting #39, #41.07; Bulletin of the American Astronomical Society, Vol. 39, p.494
Statistics
Computation
Scientific paper
Many detailed and sophisticated ab initio calculations of the electrodynamic interaction of Enceladus' plume with Saturn's corotating magnetospheric plasma flow have been computed. So far, however, all such calculations have been forward models, that assume the properties of the plume and compute perturbations to the magnetic (and in some cases, flow velocity) field. As a complement to the forward calculations, work reported here explores the inverse approach, of using simplified physical models of the interaction for computationally inverting the observed magnetic field perturbations of the interaction, in order to determine the cross-B-field conductivity distribution near Enceladus, and from that, the neutral gas distribution. Direct inversion of magnetic field observations to current systems is, of course, impossible, but adding the additional constraint of the interaction physics greatly reduces the non-uniqueness of the computed result. This approach was successfully used by Herbert (JGR 90:8241, 1985) to constrain the atmospheric distribution on Io and the Io torus mass density at the time of the Voyager encounter. Work so far has derived the expected result that there is a cone-shaped region of enhanced cross-field conductivity south of Enceladus, through which currents are driven by the motional electric field. That is, near Enceladus' south pole the cross-field currents are localized, but more widely spread at greater distance. This cross-field conductivity is presumably both pickup and collisional (Pedersen and Hall). Due to enforcement of current conservation, Alfven-wing-like currents north of the main part of the interaction region seem to close partly around Enceladus (assumed insulating) and also to continue northward with attenuated intensity, as though there were a tenuous global exosphere on Enceladus providing additional cross-field conductivity. FH thanks the NASA Outer Planets Research, Planetary Atmospheres, and Geospace Science Programs for support, and the Institut Astrophysique de Paris-CNRS for their hospitality.
Herbert Floyd
Khurana Krishan K.
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