Saturn Magnetosphere Ion Erosion by Titan: Penetration and Loss of Water Group Ions in Upper Atmosphere

Details Saturn Magnetosphere Ion Erosion by Titan: Penetration and Loss of Water Group Ions in Upper Atmosphere Saturn Magnetosphere Ion Erosion by Titan: Penetration and Loss of Water Group Ions in Upper Atmosphere

Sep 2006

adsabs.harvard.edu/cgi-bin/nph-data_query?bibcode=2006dps....38.3605h&link_type=abstract

American Astronomical Society, DPS meeting #38, #36.05; Bulletin of the American Astronomical Society, Vol. 38, p.549

Astronomy and Astrophysics

Astronomy

Scientific paper

The flux of energetic ions entering Titan's upper atmosphere from Saturn's rotating magnetosphere is a source of oxygen for the oxygen poor atmosphere. Such ion penetration also contributes to thermosphere heating and atmosphere loss through sputtering. A recent analysis of ion measurements made by the Cassini Plasma Spectrometer (CAPS) during the TA flyby showed that magnetosphere O+ decreased inside a gyrodiameter of the exobase as a result of its absorption by the atmosphere (1). Using CAPS ion measurements made during the T5 flyby, an analysis of the subsequent penetration of such heavy ions in Titan's thermosphere is described. T5 is well suited to study the penetration of magnetosphere ions because the viewing directions of the spectrometer anodes did not allow entry of heavy, energetic pickup ions, permitting the analysis of heavy magnetospheric ions alone. Consequently, heavy magnetospheric ions in the 5-10 keV range were observed to penetrate more than 300 km below the exobase. A detailed time-of-flight (TOF) analysis of the heavy ion spectra revealed the penetrating ions were water group ions; namely O+, OH+ and H2O+. The absence of a known source of water ions near Titan's orbit suggests that the ions may have been transported outward to the moon by the magnetosphere, which may be supplied by sources such as the water plumes of Enceladus. Estimates of the oxygen absorption rate and sputtering loss rates during the T5 flyby are made.
(1) Hartle et al., Geophys. Res. Lett., 33, L08201, 2006.

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