HR: 0800h
AN: SM31A-0244    [Abstracts]
TI: The Precipitation of Energetic ions into Titan's Atmosphere
AU: * Ledvina, S A
EM: ledvina@ssl.berkeley.edu
AF: Space Sciences Lab, University of California, Berkeley, CA 94720, United States
AU: Luhmann, J G
EM: jgluhman@ssl.berkeley.edu
AF: Space Sciences Lab, University of California, Berkeley, CA 94720, United States
AU: Cravens, T E
EM: Cravens@ku.edu
AF: Department of Physics & Astronomy, University of Kansas, Lawrence, KS 66045, United States
AU: Johnson, R E
EM: rej@virginia.edu
AF: Materials Science & Engineering, University of Virginia, Charlottesville, VA 22904, United States
AU: Tucker, O J
EM: ojt9j@virginia.edu
AF: Materials Science & Engineering, University of Virginia, Charlottesville, VA 22904, 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: Mitchell, D G
EM: don.mitchell@jhuapl.edu
AF: JHU/APL, 11100 Johns Hopkins Road, Laurel, MD 20723, United States
AB: The Cassini MIMI instrument has observed energetic protons and oxygen ions in Saturn's&pouter magnetosphere. These ions can precipitate into Titan's atmosphere and drive several important processes. The gyroradii of these energetic ions is large compared to the size of Titan. It is thought that Titan's induced magnetosphere should not play a role in the ion precipitation process. We test weather this is indeed the case using Monte Carlo simulations of the energetic ions. We examine the spatial distribution of these energetic ions as they cross the exobase. Calculate to what degree the induced magnetosphere affects the ion flux into the exobase as a function of the incident ion energy. We also calculate how much energy these ions contribute to Titan's atmosphere, where it is deposited and some of the consequences these precipitating ions have on Titan's&patmosphere.
DE: 5421 Interactions with particles and fields
DE: 5435 Ionospheres (2459)
DE: 6281 Titan
SC: SPA-Magnetospheric Physics [SM]
MN: 2007 Fall Meeting