Heidelberg 2006 – scientific programme

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EP: Extraterrestrische Physik

EP 10: Saturn: Plasmaumgebung, Staub und Magnetosph
äre

EP 10.1: Fachvortrag

Wednesday, March 15, 2006, 10:00–10:15, B

Plasma environment of Titan: A 3D hybrid simulation study — •Sven Simon, Alexander Bößwetter, Thorsten Bagdonat, and Uwe Motschmann — Institute for Theoretical Physics, TU Braunschweig

Titan possesses a dense atmosphere, consisting mainly of nitrogen. Titan’s orbit is located within the Kronian magnetosphere most of the time, where the corotating plasma flow is superalfvenic, yet subsonic and submagnetosonic. Since Titan does not possess an intrinsic magnetic field, the plasma interacts directly with the ionosphere. This situation features the possibility of having the densest ionosphere located on a face not aligned with the ram flow of the corotating plasma. Due to the characteristic length scales of the interaction region being comparable to the mean ion gyroradii, MHD models can only offer a rough description of the interaction region. For this reason, Titan’s plasma environment has been studied by using a 3D hybrid simulation code (fluid electrons, kinetic ions). The calculations are performed on a curvilinear grid with spherical symmetry. The simulations show the formation of a magnetic draping pattern and an extended pick-up region, being highly asymmetric with respect to the direction of the convective electric field. The mechanism giving rise to these structures exhibits many similarities to the interaction of the Martian ionosphere with the solar wind.