Hybrid Simulations of Plasma Environment Around Enceladus

Details Hybrid Simulations of Plasma Environment Around Enceladus Hybrid Simulations of Plasma Environment Around Enceladus

Dec 2008

adsabs.harvard.edu/cgi-bin/nph-data_query?bibcode=2008agufm.p23b1387o&link_type=abstract

American Geophysical Union, Fall Meeting 2008, abstract #P23B-1387

Other

2459 Planetary Ionospheres (5435, 5729, 6026), 6033 Magnetospheres (2756), 6280 Saturnian Satellites

Scientific paper

The Cassini flybys of the moon Enceladus have established the presence of magnetic field perturbations and plasma deflections due to its interaction with the corotating plasma. These observations show that the nature of the interaction region changes from one flyby to another indicating a time dependent behavior. In general, the field and plasma perturbations can be caused by the body of the moon, its exosphere (if present) and the plumes associated with the escape of neutral gasses from its southern hemisphere. Thus, the time dependency of the interaction region is tied to the variabilities of the neutral densities associated with the exosphere or plumes and also the observed, planetary rotation synched variation of plasma density in the region around the orbit of Enceladus . To understand the nature of plasma interaction with Enceladus we have conducted an investigation using 3-D electromagnetic hybrid simulations in which ions are treated kinetically while the electrons form a massless fluid. In these simulations, charge exchange between corotating ions and neutrals around Enceladus and plasma absorption by the body of the moon are included. The results show that the body of Enceladus by itself leads to an interaction consisting of a density cavity behind the moon with little change in plasma flow velocity and weak magnetic field perturbations. On the other hand, the presence of a dense enough exosphere or a plasma plume modify the nature of the interaction region significantly leading to more complex density and flow structures and generation of Alfvenic and slow magnetosonic wings. In this presentation, we describe these results in detail and show how the body of Enceladus, its exosphere and plumes contribute to the overall interaction region in isolation and collectively. We also compare the results with Cassini flyby data to estimate the neutral densities associated with the plumes and whether they indicate the presence of an exosphere or not.

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