Hybrid Simulations of the Enceladus Plasma Interaction and Comparison with MAG Data

Details Hybrid Simulations of the Enceladus Plasma Interaction and Comparison with MAG Data Hybrid Simulations of the Enceladus Plasma Interaction and Comparison with MAG Data

Dec 2008

adsabs.harvard.edu/cgi-bin/nph-data_query?bibcode=2008agufm.p23b1386k&link_type=abstract

American Geophysical Union, Fall Meeting 2008, abstract #P23B-1386

Physics

2431 Ionosphere/Magnetosphere Interactions (2736), 2732 Magnetosphere Interactions With Satellites And Rings, 2753 Numerical Modeling, 6275 Saturn, 6280 Saturnian Satellites

Scientific paper

The Cassini Spacecraft has made four close flybys of Saturn's icy moon Enceladus. It became evident that a large water vapour and dust plume is located below Enceladus' south pole. Cassini plasma and magnetic field measurements indicate a source strength exceeding 100 kg/s and show a significant draping of the magnetic field lines. Cassini observations suggest a plume diameter of at least 2 Enceladus radii and a mass loading rate of about 2-3 kg/s. We study the interaction of Enceladus with the Saturnian magnetospheric plasma and magnetic field by using a three-dimensional hybrid model, which treats the electrons as a fluid and the ions as individual particles. Our model includes a self-consistent description of the obstacle's internal conductivity and also considers ion-neutral-collisions. We analyze systematically how the obstacle's internal conductivity as well as the shape and size of the plume contribute to the overall structure of the interaction region. The presence of the plume gives rise to a magnetic cavity downstream of the moon and a magnetic pile-up region, while the field lines are able to pass through the solid body of Enceladus almost unaffected. Our simulation results are in reasonable agreement with observations made by the Cassini magnetometer instrument.

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