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Titan's ionosphere in the magnetosheath: Cassini RPWS results during the T32 flyby
- Source :
- Annales Geophysicae, Vol 27, Pp 4257-4272 (2009), Annales Geophysicae, Annales Geophysicae, European Geosciences Union, 2009, 27 (11), pp.4257-4272. ⟨10.5194/angeo-27-4257-2009⟩, ResearcherID, Annales Geophysicae, 2009, 27 (11), pp.4257-4272. ⟨10.5194/angeo-27-4257-2009⟩
- Publication Year :
- 2009
- Publisher :
- Copernicus Publications, 2009.
-
Abstract
- The Cassini mission has provided much information about the Titan environment, with numerous low altitude encounters with the moon being always inside the magnetosphere. The only encounter taking place outside the magnetopause, in the magnetosheath, occurred the 13 June 2007 (T32 flyby). This paper is dedicated to the analysis of the Radio and Plasma Wave investigation data during this specific encounter, in particular with the Langmuir probe, providing a detailed picture of the cold plasma environment and of Titan's ionosphere with these unique plasma conditions. The various pressure terms were also calculated during the flyby. The comparison with the T30 flyby, whose geometry was very similar to the T32 encounter but where Titan was immersed in the kronian magnetosphere, reveals that the evolution of the incident plasma has a significant influence on the structure of the ionosphere, with in particular a change of the exo-ionospheric shape. The electrical conductivities are given along the trajectory of the spacecraft and the discovery of a polar plasma cavity is reported.
- Subjects :
- Atmospheric Science
010504 meteorology & atmospheric sciences
[PHYS.ASTR.EP]Physics [physics]/Astrophysics [astro-ph]/Earth and Planetary Astrophysics [astro-ph.EP]
[SDU.ASTR.EP]Sciences of the Universe [physics]/Astrophysics [astro-ph]/Earth and Planetary Astrophysics [astro-ph.EP]
Magnetosphere
01 natural sciences
Astrobiology
symbols.namesake
Magnetosheath
Physics::Plasma Physics
0103 physical sciences
Earth and Planetary Sciences (miscellaneous)
Langmuir probe
lcsh:Science
010303 astronomy & astrophysics
0105 earth and related environmental sciences
Physics
[PHYS.PHYS.PHYS-AO-PH]Physics [physics]/Physics [physics]/Atmospheric and Oceanic Physics [physics.ao-ph]
Waves in plasmas
lcsh:QC801-809
Geology
Astronomy and Astrophysics
lcsh:QC1-999
lcsh:Geophysics. Cosmic physics
Space and Planetary Science
Physics::Space Physics
symbols
Magnetopause
lcsh:Q
Astrophysics::Earth and Planetary Astrophysics
Ionosphere
Titan (rocket family)
lcsh:Physics
Radio wave
Subjects
Details
- Language :
- English
- ISSN :
- 14320576 and 09927689
- Volume :
- 27
- Database :
- OpenAIRE
- Journal :
- Annales Geophysicae
- Accession number :
- edsair.doi.dedup.....b4520239e59e46a16d7e332562492f44