Titan's Variable Ionosphere During the T118 and T119 Cassini Flybys

Edberg, Niklas J. T.; Vigren, Erik; Snowden, D.; Regoli, Leonardo; Shebanits, Oleg; Andrews, David; Bertucci, C.; Cui, Jun

doi:10.1029/2018gl078436

Cited by 2 publications

(2 citation statements)

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“…Regarding the RPWS/LP derived electron density and temperature, Chatain et al (2021aChatain et al ( , 2021b provides a very detailed analysis of the electron current, showing that in Titan's ionosphere it consists of up to three electron populations as well as secondary electrons emitted from the s/c. However, the main populations have similar properties and their net densities and temperatures are consistent with the earlier estimates of the bulk temperatures and densities by Ågren et al (2009) and Edberg et al (2010Edberg et al ( , 2013aEdberg et al ( , 2018. Due to the complexity of the analysis, dividing the electrons into three polulations also introduces significant error margins (Chatain et al, 2021a).…”

Section: Datasets and Flyby Coveragesupporting

confidence: 87%

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Conductivities of Titan's Dusty Ionosphere

et al. 2022

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Titan is immersed in Saturn's magnetosphere (Bertucci et al., 2008;Garnier et al., 2010) and does not have its own magnetic field. Instead, an induced magnetic field is formed around Titan from the interactions with Saturn's magnetosphere (Wahlund et al., 2005), similarly to interactions of Venus and Mars with the solar wind and interplanetary magnetic field (e.g., Bertucci et al., 2011 and references therein). The interaction between Titan and the ambient magnetic field depends to a large degree on Titan's conductive ionosphere. Previously, the electrical properties of Titan's ionosphere were derived using only the ion and electron content (Rosenqvist et al., 2009). In the later years, the data sets have been significantly updated. Most notably, large amounts of charged dust were detected in Titan's ionosphere (Ågren et al., 2012;Coates et al., 2007;Shebanits et al., 2013) and a globally present dusty ion-ion plasma is expected (Shebanits et al., 2016). The charged dust grains in the ionosphere-like plasma of Enceladus plume (Morooka et al., 2011) and in the near-equatorial dusty ionosphere of Saturn (Morooka et al., 2019) were shown to have a profound effect on its electric conductivities by Simon et al. (2011) and Yaroshenko and Lühr (2016), and Shebanits et al. (2020, respectively. In this work we derive the electrical properties of Titan's ionosphere using the full plasma content: electrons, positive ions and negative ions/dust grains and investigate the impact of dusty plasma on an unmagnetized planetary body. The relevant in-situ measurements used here are from the Radio and Plasma Wave Science Langmuir Probe (RPWS/LP, Gurnett et al., 2004), the Ion and Neutral Mass Spectrometer (INMS, Teolis et al., 2015;Waite et al., 2004) and the Cassini Fluxgate Magnetometer (MAG, Dougherty et al., 2004). The data set spans the entire Cassini mission and is representative of a full solar cycle and nearly half Titan year.

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Section: Datasets and Flyby Coveragesupporting

confidence: 87%

“…(2009) and Edberg et al. (2010, 2013a, 2018). Due to the complexity of the analysis, dividing the electrons into three polulations also introduces significant error margins (Chatain et al., 2021a).…”

Section: Observations and Methodsmentioning

confidence: 94%

Conductivities of Titan's Dusty Ionosphere

et al. 2022

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Titan’s “Average” Ionospheric Structures from Cassini

Hsu¹,

Ip²

2021

Planet. Sci. J.

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The decadal observations of Titan’s neutral atmosphere and ionosphere by the Ion and Neutral Mass Spectrometer mass spectrometer and other instruments on board the Cassini spacecraft at the Saturnian system provide a precious data set concerning the large-scale structure of Titan’s upper ionosphere. An attempt is made in this study to generate average 3D ion density distributions for different ion species by using a simple approximation of the solar zenith angle dependence. Both altitude dependence and neutral gas number density dependence of the ion density distributions will be presented. This empirical approach allows a comprehensive visualization of the global properties of Titan’s ionosphere that could be useful as engineering models for future missions to Titan.

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Titan's Variable Ionosphere During the T118 and T119 Cassini Flybys

Cited by 2 publications

References 38 publications

Conductivities of Titan's Dusty Ionosphere

Conductivities of Titan's Dusty Ionosphere

Titan’s “Average” Ionospheric Structures from Cassini

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