Suprathermal Heavy Ion Composition in Saturn's Magnetosphere

Details Suprathermal Heavy Ion Composition in Saturn's Magnetosphere Suprathermal Heavy Ion Composition in Saturn's Magnetosphere

Dec 2008

adsabs.harvard.edu/cgi-bin/nph-data_query?bibcode=2008agufmsm32a..02h&link_type=abstract

American Geophysical Union, Fall Meeting 2008, abstract #SM32A-02

Physics

2778 Ring Current, 5737 Magnetospheres (2756), 6275 Saturn, 7845 Particle Acceleration

Scientific paper

We use measurements from the Charge-Energy-Mass Spectrometer (CHEMS) to determine long-term average heavy ion composition in Saturn's magnetosphere. CHEMS, one of three sensors comprising the MIMI investigation on Cassini, determines the mass and charge state of ions in the energy per charge range 3-220 keV/e. With four years of data now in hand since Cassini entered into orbit about Saturn, it is possible to determine average magnetospheric abundances including even relatively rare species. In order to definitively identify each species we utilize data above 80 keV/e where all species considered are positively identified by both a time-of-flight and an energy measurement, yielding separately an ion's mass per charge and mass. We will present abundances of C+, N+, O+, O++, OH+, H2O+, N2+ (or possibly CO+), and O2+. O+ is the most abundant suprathermal heavy ion with an abundance comparable to that of H+. C+ and N+ are present at 2-5% of O+ while O2+ is present at a little over 1% of O+. We will discuss the implications of these abundances for plasma source strengths, acceleration processes, and magnetospheric residence times.

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