Negative ions at Titan - density trends

Details Negative ions at Titan - density trends Negative ions at Titan - density trends

Dec 2009

adsabs.harvard.edu/cgi-bin/nph-data_query?bibcode=2009agufm.p51g1198w&link_type=abstract

American Geophysical Union, Fall Meeting 2009, abstract #P51G-1198

Physics

[2732] Magnetospheric Physics / Magnetosphere Interactions With Satellites And Rings, [5435] Planetary Sciences: Solid Surface Planets / Ionospheres, [6280] Planetary Sciences: Solar System Objects / Saturnian Satellites, [6281] Planetary Sciences: Solar System Objects / Titan

Scientific paper

The Electron Spectrometer part of the Cassini Plasma Spectrometer (CAPS-ELS) has revealed the existence of negative ions in Titan’s ionosphere (Coates et al, 2007, Waite et al, 2007). These are observed during every encounter when the instrument points in the ram direction at altitudes between 950 and 1400 km. The heaviest ions observed so far have masses up to 13 800 amu/q. This indicates that complex hydrocarbon and nitrile chemical processes take place in Titan’s upper atmosphere. With data from over 20 encounters and taking advantage of an increase in the duty cycle of measurements during recent flybys we have accumulated a large negative ion data base. Coates et al. (2009) discussed trends in the highest masses observed with solar zenith angle (SZA), altitude and latitude. We now extend this study to density trends of different masses. Groups of masses can be identified because recurrent peaks are observed in the “mass” spectra of different encounters. We investigate the effects of different controlling parameters such as altitude, solar zenith angle, latitude, Titan local time, and the angle between magnetospheric co-rotation and solar ionisation sources. The aim of this study is to help constrain the chemical formation and destruction processes of negative ions in Titan’s ionosphere. We present the results and discuss their implications. For instance, for higher masses of 110-200 amu at an altitude range of 950 - 1050 km the highest densities are found on the nightside, whereas the highest densities of low masses (10 - 30 amu) are found on the dayside at low SZAs in the same altitude range. Therefore, nightside reactions seem to yield the highest densities for higher masses and photochemical reactions yield the highest densities for the lower mass negative ions.

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