HR: 08:35h
AN: P51D-03 INVITED    [Abstracts]
TI: Titan's magnetospheric interaction
AU: * Ma, Y
EM: yingjuan@igpp.ucla.edu
AF: IGPP, UCLA, 6877 Slicher Hall, Los Angeles, CA 90025, United States
AU: Russell, C T
EM: ctrussell@igpp.ucla.edu
AF: IGPP, UCLA, 6877 Slicher Hall, Los Angeles, CA 90025, United States
AU: Andrew, N F
EM: anagy@umich.edu
AF: University of Michgan, 2455 Hayward St., Ann Arbor, MI 48109, United States
AU: Cravens, T E
EM: cravens@ku.edu
AF: Univ. Kansas, 1251 Wescoe Hall, Lawrence, KS 66045, United States
AU: Neubauer, F M
EM: neubauer@geo.uni-koeln.de
AF: University of Cologne, Rostocker Str 9, Cologne, 50374, Germany
AU: Dougherty, M K
EM: m.dougherty@imperial.ac.uk
AF: The Blackett Laboratory, Imperial College, Space and Atmospheric Physics, London, SW7 2AZ, United Kingdom
AU: Coates, A J
EM: ajc@mssl.ucl.ac.uk
AF: Mullard Space Science Laboratory, University College London, MSSL-UCL Dorking Surrey, London, RH5 6NT, United Kingdom
AU: Wahlund, J
EM: jwe@irfu.se
AF: Swedish Inst Space Physics, Uppsala Box 537, Uppsala, SE-75121, Sweden
AU: Crary, F J
EM: fcrary@swri.edu
AF: Southwest research institution, 6220 Culebra Rd, San Antonio, TX 78228, United States
AB: Titan's magnetospheric interaction has been extensively studied with observations from both the Voyager and Cassini spacecraft and investigated with various numerical models. Titan has a well extended atmosphere/ionosphere system and no appreciable intrinsic magnetic field. Its interaction with the rotating plasma flow in the Saturnian magnetosphere is controlled by both the upstream plasma and Titan's Saturn local time. The interaction results in a complex plasma environment near Titan: the plasma flow slows down due to ion pick-up and the resulting mass loading, the magnetic field lines pile-up in front of the obstacle and form an induced bipolar magnetotail in the wake region. Kinetic processes are believed to be important in the interaction process due to the large gyroradii of the heavy ion plasma component. In this presentation, we will review Titan's interaction process and discuss the applicability of various numerical models, including a comparison of the pros and cons of contemporary hybrid models and fluid models in particular MHD-models.
DE: 2459 Planetary ionospheres (5435, 5729, 6026)
DE: 2732 Magnetosphere interactions with satellites and rings
DE: 6281 Titan
SC: Planetary Sciences [P]
MN: 2007 Fall Meeting