Cassini Observations of Co-rotating Heavy Ions Near Saturn's Rings

Details Cassini Observations of Co-rotating Heavy Ions Near Saturn's Rings Cassini Observations of Co-rotating Heavy Ions Near Saturn's Rings

Dec 2004

adsabs.harvard.edu/cgi-bin/nph-data_query?bibcode=2004agufm.p53a1456t&link_type=abstract

American Geophysical Union, Fall Meeting 2004, abstract #P53A-1456

Physics

5421 Interactions With Particles And Fields, 5465 Rings And Dust, 6265 Planetary Rings, 6275 Saturn

Scientific paper

During Saturn orbit insertion on July 1, 2004, Cassini passed over the B, A, and F rings and the Cassini division before descending, just inside the G ring, through the ring plane. The ion mass spectrometer (IMS), a component of the Cassini plasma spectrometer (CAPS), observed ion flux during this ring plane crossing whenever the instrument viewing was into the co-rotation direction. This occurred in two time intervals, the first from about 03:36 to 03:58 UT (interval 1) and the second from about 04:14 to 04:48 UT (interval 2). Interval 1 is about 0.2 Rs above the A and B rings and the Cassini division. Interval 2 includes the ring plane crossing, inside the G ring. A predictive model that incorporates the IMS view direction and detector response, the spacecraft velocity, and the assumption of co-rotation reproduces many of the salient features in these data. In interval 1, the IMS flux peaks at about 20 and 40 eV in the IMS frame, consistent with co-rotating ions with mass per charge of 16 and 32. It is plausible that these peaks are produced by the heavy ions O+ and O2+, a by product of erosion of the main icy rings. The interval 2 data are similar, with the most intense flux at ~80 eV, extending down to about 40 eV, again in the IMS frame. These energies are also consistent with the co-rotating model predictions for mass per charge values of 16 and 32. Quantitative analysis will be presented at the meeting, including ion identification via the IMS time of flight spectra.

Affiliated with

Also associated with

No associations

Rating

Cassini Observations of Co-rotating Heavy Ions Near Saturn's Rings does not yet have a rating. At this time, there are no reviews or comments for this scientific paper.

If you have personal experience with Cassini Observations of Co-rotating Heavy Ions Near Saturn's Rings, we encourage you to share that experience with our LandOfFree.com community. Your opinion is very important and Cassini Observations of Co-rotating Heavy Ions Near Saturn's Rings will most certainly appreciate the feedback.

Rate now

Comments { 0 }

Profile ID: LFWR-SCP-O-1454416