HR: 1340h
AN: P43A-0962    [Abstracts]
TI: Global Simulations of Enceladus Interacting with Saturn's Magnetospheric Plasma
AU: * Ledvina, S A
EM: ledvina@ssl.berkeley.edu
AF: Space Sciences Laboratory, University of California, 7 Gauss Way #7450, Berkeley, CA 94720-7450 United States
AU: Brecht, S H
EM: sbrecht@pacbell.net
AF: Bay Area Research Corp., P.O. Box 366, Orinda, CA 94563 United States
AU: Luhmann, J G
EM: jgluhman@ssl.berkeley.edu
AF: Space Sciences Laboratory, University of California, 7 Gauss Way #7450, Berkeley, CA 94720-7450 United States
AB: In its first year of operation at Saturn, the Cassini spacecraft has made three close flybys of Enceladus. This is relatively small moon (RE ~250 km) that reflects nearly 100 percent of the light that hits its ice covered surface. During the flybys the Cassini magnetometer instrument detected the draping of Saturn's magnetic field around Enceladus and also wave activity that suggests water ions could be part of a very thin atmosphere surrounding the moon. This was confirmed during the July 14, 2005 flyby when the Ion Neutral Mass Spectrometer (INMS) found that the atmosphere of Enceladus is dominated by water (> 10⁴ cm^-3), with significant amounts of carbon dioxide, and an element of 28 amu (probably molecular nitrogen). The global features of the interaction between Saturn's magnetospheric plasma flow and the atmosphere/ionosphere of Enceladus are examined by using a global 3-D MHD simulation. The simulation is based on the recent INMS observations. The results allow us to estimate the source of ions into Saturn's magnetosphere due to Enceladus and to characterize the nature of its interaction with Saturn's magnetosphere
DE: 2459 Planetary ionospheres (5435, 5729, 6026)
DE: 2732 Magnetosphere interactions with satellites and rings
DE: 6280 Saturnian satellites
SC: Planetary Sciences [P]
MN: Fall Meeting 2005