Impact of ion-neutral chemistry in the Enceladus plume on the global plasma interaction: a hybrid simulation approach

Details Impact of ion-neutral chemistry in the Enceladus plume on the global plasma interaction: a hybrid simulation approach Impact of ion-neutral chemistry in the Enceladus plume on the global plasma interaction: a hybrid simulation approach

Dec 2009

adsabs.harvard.edu/cgi-bin/nph-data_query?bibcode=2009agufm.p51c1141k&link_type=abstract

American Geophysical Union, Fall Meeting 2009, abstract #P51C-1141

Physics

Plasma Physics

[2152] Interplanetary Physics / Pickup Ions, [6280] Planetary Sciences: Solar System Objects / Saturnian Satellites, [7823] Space Plasma Physics / Ionization Processes

Scientific paper

Saturn's small, icy moon Enceladus was found to have a large plume of water vapor below its south pole. Since this discovery, numerous studies have been carried out to investigate the neutrals in the plume itself as well as their ionization and the resulting effects on the plasma interaction. Although the ionization mechanisms and the plasma interaction are coupled to each other, so far, there is no kinetic model which connects both aspects in a self-consistent way. To fill this gap, we present a hybrid simulation study (kinetic ions, fluid electrons) of the interaction between Enceladus' plume and the magnetospheric plasma of Saturn. For the first time, ionization of plume ions due to charge exchange, electron impacts and photoionization as well as ion kinetic effects are all treated simultaneously within the framework of a single model. Investigating charge exchange by a kinetic model reveals fundamentally new physical effects which cannot be described by any fluid model: Since the free path lengths in the center of the plume are smaller than the ion gyroradius, non-gyrotropic particle distributions are formed. For individual ions, this goes along with a drift motion away from Saturn. In order to understand the basic physics of this non-gyrotropy-drift motion, an analytical test particle model is developed and an equation for the guiding center trajectory is derived. The findings of this analytical model are in good agreement with our hybrid model. Furthermore, the implications for our understanding of the plasma interaction of Enceladus and the measurements made by Cassini are discussed. Moreover, by combining a comparison to Cassini MAG data with a sophisticated model of the neutral density in the plume and a realistic ion-neutral chemistry, our hybrid simulations allow to impose constraints on the amount of ionization done by the hot electron (> 10 eV) population.

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