Saturn's A-ring Ionosphere as Observed by the Cassini Ion and Neutral Mass Spectrometer

Details Saturn's A-ring Ionosphere as Observed by the Cassini Ion and Neutral Mass Spectrometer Saturn's A-ring Ionosphere as Observed by the Cassini Ion and Neutral Mass Spectrometer

Dec 2004

adsabs.harvard.edu/cgi-bin/nph-data_query?bibcode=2004agufm.p51c..08c&link_type=abstract

American Geophysical Union, Fall Meeting 2004, abstract #P51C-08

Other

5729 Ionospheres (2459), 6026 Ionospheres: Composition And Chemistry, 6265 Planetary Rings, 6275 Saturn, 2459 Planetary Ionospheres (5435, 5729, 6026, 6027, 6028)

Scientific paper

The Ion and Neutral Mass Spectrometer (INMS) instrument onboard the Cassini Orbiter jettisoned its cover and started making measurements shortly after the spacecraft's main engine shut off. The mass spectra obtained with the INMS open source ion mode when the spacecraft was over the A-ring showed clear peaks at mass numbers associated with O2+, O+, and H+ ions. The O2+ peak was by far the largest and suggests the existence of a significant ring-plane ionosphere. The existence of O2+ ions also points to the existence of neutral O2 in the vicinity of the A-ring. This neutral oxygen must then be ionized, perhaps by photoionization by solar ultraviolet photons. Determining absolute ion densities from the INMS data alone is difficult due to the limited INMS field of view but density estimates have been made and can be compared with data from other Cassini plasma instruments. Ring-atmosphere measurements made by INMS in its closed and open source neutral modes appears to be dominated by background signal but possible upper limits to the ring plane neutral density will be briefly discussed.

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