Dusty plasma of E-ring and Enceladus observed by Cassini Langmuir probe

Details Dusty plasma of E-ring and Enceladus observed by Cassini Langmuir probe Dusty plasma of E-ring and Enceladus observed by Cassini Langmuir probe

May 2009

adsabs.harvard.edu/cgi-bin/nph-data_query?bibcode=2009agusm.p33a..06m&link_type=abstract

American Geophysical Union, Spring Meeting 2009, abstract #P33A-06

Other

6213 Dust, 6265 Planetary Rings, 6280 Saturnian Satellites

Scientific paper

During the three Enceladus plume and associated E-ring encounter of the Cassini spacecraft, the ion/electron number densities and the temperature data are obtained by the RPWS Langmuir probe (LP). We found that the electron/ion densities increase as Cassini approaches the E-ring. As Cassini encounters the E-ring within the distance from the equator Z = ˜ ± 20,000 km, the electron density gradually decrease while the ion density is still increasing. This signature seems to be due to the negatively charged dust as recently reported by Wahlund et al. (2005, 2009). Furthermore, in this region the ion velocity is close to the Keplarian speed. Such observed signatures have been detected throughout the plasma disk near the E-ring. There are no Langmuir probe observations indicating an ionosphere around Enceladus. In the Enceladus plume, on the other hand, both the ion and electron density became very large (up to a few 105 cm-3 for the ions and at least few 104 cm-3 for the electrons). However, the number densities of the electrons are still significantly lower than the ion number densities, except possibly in the densest parts. That is, the charged dusts are still important in the plume region. The ion speed is departed from the Keplarian speed, which seems to be consistent with the plasma flow in the plume region. We discuss the dust-plasma interaction and electrodynamics in the plasma disk near the E-ring and in the Enceladus plume region.

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