Cassini radio occultations of Saturn's ionosphere: Model comparisons using a constant water flux

Details Cassini radio occultations of Saturn's ionosphere: Model comparisons using a constant water flux Cassini radio occultations of Saturn's ionosphere: Model comparisons using a constant water flux

Nov 2006

adsabs.harvard.edu/cgi-bin/nph-data_query?bibcode=2006georl..3322202m&link_type=abstract

Geophysical Research Letters, Volume 33, Issue 22, CiteID L22202

Physics

18

Planetary Sciences: Fluid Planets: Ionospheres (2459), Planetary Sciences: Solar System Objects: Saturn, Radio Science: Ionospheric Physics (1240, 2400)

Scientific paper

Recent radio occultations of Saturn's equatorial ionosphere by the Cassini spacecraft provide important insight into this poorly constrained region. Twelve new electron density profiles identify a clear dawn/dusk asymmetry as well as two apparently separate electron density peaks. This study uses a 3D general circulation model along with 1D water diffusion calculations to examine the possibility that a topside flux of neutral water into Saturn's atmosphere may provide a loss mechanism-via charge exchange with protons-that is sufficient to reproduce the ionosphere observed by Cassini. Results indicate that a constant influx of water of (0.5-1.0) × 107 H2O cm-2 sec-1 is adequate for reproducing Cassini measurements, providing a good match to the main electron density peak at dawn and dusk. In addition, these calculations use a reduced rate for the reaction H+ + H2(ν >= 4) -> H2+ + H, significantly diminishing its importance in Saturn's ionospheric photochemistry.

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