Electron density dropout near Enceladus in the context of water-vapor and water-ice

Details Electron density dropout near Enceladus in the context of water-vapor and water-ice Electron density dropout near Enceladus in the context of water-vapor and water-ice

May 2009

adsabs.harvard.edu/cgi-bin/nph-data_query?bibcode=2009georl..3610203f&link_type=abstract

Geophysical Research Letters, Volume 36, Issue 10, CiteID L10203

Physics

16

Planetary Sciences: Solar System Objects: Saturnian Satellites, Planetary Sciences: Comets And Small Bodies: Interactions With Solar Wind Plasma And Fields, Planetary Sciences: Comets And Small Bodies: Radiation And Chemistry, Planetary Sciences: Comets And Small Bodies: Ices, Planetary Sciences: Comets And Small Bodies: Erosion And Weathering

Scientific paper

On 12 March 2008, the Cassini spacecraft made a close encounter with the Saturnian moon Enceladus, passing within 52 km of the moon. The spacecraft trajectory was intentionally-oriented in a southerly direction to create a close alignment with the intense water-dominated plumes emitted from the south polar region. During the passage, the Cassini Radio and Plasma Wave System (RPWS) detected two distinct radio signatures: 1) Impulses associated with small water-ice dust grain impacts and 2) an upper hybrid (UH) resonance emission that both intensified and displayed a sharp frequency decrease in the near-vicinity of the moon. The frequency decrease of the UH emission is associated with an unexpectedly sharp decrease in electron density from ˜90 el/cm3 to below 20 el/cm3 that occurs on a time scale of a minute near the closest encounter with the moon. In this work, we consider a number of scenarios to explain this sharp electron dropout, but surmise that electron absorption by ice grains is the most likely process.

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