Physics
Scientific paper
Dec 2010
adsabs.harvard.edu/cgi-bin/nph-data_query?bibcode=2010agufm.p21c..03j&link_type=abstract
American Geophysical Union, Fall Meeting 2010, abstract #P21C-03
Physics
[2431] Ionosphere / Ionosphere/Magnetosphere Interactions, [2756] Magnetospheric Physics / Planetary Magnetospheres, [5780] Planetary Sciences: Fluid Planets / Tori And Exospheres, [6280] Planetary Sciences: Solar System Objects / Saturnian Satellites
Scientific paper
The dynamics of the saturnian magnetosphere is controlled by the planetary spin at a rate of about 10.5 hours. The second icy moon of Saturn, Enceladus, orbits at 4 planetary radii deep in the inner magnetosphere. Enceladus creates neutrals at a rate of hundreds of kilograms per second. These neutrals are ionized and picked up by the ambient plasma and spun up to the corotational velocity to form a plasma disk. Consequently, the gas and plasma density peak close to the Enceladus orbit. In the gas torus, the majority of the gas particles travel at their keplerian speed of 14 km/s, while the bulk of the plasma rotates at 30-40 km/s as a response to the rigid spinning of the saturnian magnetic field. The corotating plasma torus feels a centrifugal force that is balanced by the magnetic tension force. To balance the centripetal force of this plasma disk, Saturn’s magnetic field is stretched in both radial and azimuthal directions. At Enceladus the massive pickup of new ions from its plume slows down the corotating flow and breaks this force balance to cause plasma flows in the radial direction of Saturn. Such radial flows in the inner magnetosphere of Saturn are supported by Cassini observations using various particle and field instruments. In this study we summarize the lessons learned from recent Cassini observations and our numerical simulation effort of the local interactions at Enceladus, and model the inner magnetosphere of Saturn to reproduce the force balance processes. The neutral torus is treated as a background in this axis-symmetric model.
Gombosi Tamas I.
Jia Yu
Khurana Krishan K.
Russell Christopher T.
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