The Structure of the Titan Ionosphere

Details The Structure of the Titan Ionosphere The Structure of the Titan Ionosphere

Dec 2007

adsabs.harvard.edu/cgi-bin/nph-data_query?bibcode=2007dps....39.5615k&link_type=abstract

American Astronomical Society, DPS meeting #39, #56.15; Bulletin of the American Astronomical Society, Vol. 39, p.530

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Scientific paper

Eight vertical profiles of the electron density in Titan's ionosphere were derived from the Cassini radio occultations of March 26, and May28, 2007 (T27 and T31), as well as those of March 19, 2006 (T12), and May 20,2006 (T14) . The 2006 occultations occurred at low Southern latitudes of 14.7S, 36.2S, 19.8S, and 21.9S. The 2007 occultations were nearly polar, at latitudes of 75S and 61N for T27. and 75S and 74N for T31.. The solar zenith angles for all occultations were near the terminator, ranging from 85 to 95 deg.
The ionosphere peak was observed to lie close to an altitude of 1200 km, and the observed peak densities ranged from about 1.2 to 2.2 x 103 cm-3, which is in good agreement with other Cassini observations and the previous Voyager radio occultation results. In all measurements, the peak densities are about 30% higher near the dusk terminator, showing the influence of solar EUV.
Radio occultation observations of the Titan ionosphere are difficult because of its low density and small size, and it was facilitated by the unprecedented Cassini radio science system, which has three frequencies that can operate simultaneously: S-band (2.3 GHz), X-band (8.4 GHz), and Ka-band (32 GHz). In particular, Ka-band had never been used before to probe Titan's ionosphere, and the signal-to-noise ratios at all frequencies of 42, 54, and 48 dB-Hz., respectively, have never before been achieved.
The rsults indicate a clear dusk-dawn asymmetry in peak electron density, with the average dusk densty being about 40% greater than the dawn side. . The dusk profiles also have more structure both above and below the main peak, including a peak at about 500 km. altitude.

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