HR: 1340h
AN: P53A-1454    [Abstracts]
TI: Global Hybrid Simulations of Titan's Plasma Interaction During the Cassini TA Flyby
AU: * Ledvina, S A
EM: ledvina@ssl.berkeley.edu
AF: Space Sciences Lab 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., 93 Moraga Way # 200, Orinda, CA 94563 United States
AU: Hansen, K C
EM: kenhan@umich.edu
AF: Space Physics Research Lab University of Michigan, 2455 Hayward Street, Ann Arbor, MI 48109 United States
AB: The interaction of Titan's ionosphere with Saturn's magnetosphere plasma is complicated by the significant size of the ion gyroradii relative to the size of Titan. Voyager 1 found a two species plasma consisting of H$^{+}$ and N$^{+}$ with number densities of 0.1 and 0.2 cm$^{-3}$ respectively, near Titan. The gyroradii of the incident N$^{+}$ was found to be 2.25 R$_{T}$ (1 R$_{T}$ = 2575 km), while the gyroradii of the H$^{+}$ was smaller at 0.16 R$_{T}$. The plasma conditions near Titan at TA could be significantly different from the plasma conditions during the Voyager encounter, since Titan is located closer to the sub-solar point in the magnetosphere. Depending on the solar wind conditions present at TA Titan may find itself in the outer magnetosphere, the magnetosheath or even the solar wind. We investigate Titan's interaction with its surrounding plasma environment during TA using a global hybrid simulation with predicted upstream conditions from a global MHD simulation of Saturn's magnetosphere.
DE: 6025 Interactions with solar wind plasma and fields
DE: 6028 Ionospheres--structure and dynamics
DE: 6280 Saturnian satellites
DE: 2732 Magnetosphere interactions with satellites and rings
SC: Planetary Sciences [P]
MN: 2004 AGU Fall Meeting