Astronomy and Astrophysics – Astrophysics
Scientific paper
Aug 2007
adsabs.harvard.edu/cgi-bin/nph-data_query?bibcode=2007ap%26ss.310..211m&link_type=abstract
Astrophysics and Space Science, Volume 310, Issue 3-4, pp. 211-230
Astronomy and Astrophysics
Astrophysics
Energetic Particles, Planetary Magnetosphere, Monte Carlo Simulation, Saturn
Scientific paper
A model is presented to describe the energization of charged particles in planetary magnetospheres. The model is based on the stochastic acceleration produced by a random electric field that is induced by the magnetic field fluctuations measured within the magnetospheres. The stochastic behavior of the electric field is simulated through a Monte Carlo method. We solve the equation of motion for a single charged particle—which comprises the stochastic acceleration due to the stochastic electric field, the Lorentz acceleration (containing the local magnetic field and the corotational electric field) and the gravitational planetary acceleration of the particle—under several initial conditions. The initial conditions include the ion species and the velocity distribution of the particles which depends on the sources they come from (solar wind, ionospheres, rings and satellites). We applied this model to Saturn’s inner magnetosphere using a sample of particles (H+, H2O+, N+, O+ and OH+) initially located on Saturn’s north pole, above the C-Ring, on the south pole of Enceladus, in the north pole of Dione and above the E-Ring. The results show that the particles tend to increase the value of their energy with time reaching several eV in a few seconds and the large energization is observed far from the planet. We can distinguish three main energization regions within Saturn’s inner magnetosphere: minimum (Saturn’s ionosphere), intermediate (Dione) and high-energy (Enceladus and the E-ring). The resulting energy spectrum follows a power-law distribution (>1 keV), a logistic, an exponential decay or an asymmetric sigmoidal (<1 keV).
Durand-Manterola Hector Javier
Martinez-Gomez E.
Pérez de Tejada H.
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