Title: Neutral Clouds and Their Influence on Pick-up Ions in Saturn’s Magnetosphere
Abstract: The Saturnian system is interesting in that its magnetosphere is dominated by neutral particles. It was originally thought that the dense, relatively exposed nitrogen dominated atmosphere of Saturn’s large moon, Titan, was the largest source of heavy particles. However, research based on recent Cassini observations confirm that the tiny icy moon Enceladus serves as the dominate source of heavy particles (water group) in Saturn’s magnetosphere. Saturn’s atmosphere and Titan as well as Enceladus also provide a significant source of hydrogen particles. These dynamic sources have interesting implications for ion source generation mechanisms which then modify the neutral particle distribution. Thus, pick‐up ion sources and distribution is highly influenced by these neutral particles and vice versa. Here we present an overview of Saturn’s magnetospheric neutral particle distribution and how this distribution affects pick‐up ion production. We also show how detection of these ions has been used to identify neutral populations that elude direct detection.
Publication Year: 2010
Publication Date: 2010-01-01
Language: en
Type: article
Indexed In: ['crossref']
Access and Citation
Cited By Count: 1
AI Researcher Chatbot
Get quick answers to your questions about the article from our AI researcher chatbot