Dust-plasma interaction through magnetosphere-ionosphere coupling in Saturn’s plasma disk

• The ion bulk speeds in the equatorial region of Saturn’s inner magnetosphere, according to data from the Langmuir Probe (LP) on board the Cassini spacecraft, are about 60% of the ideal co-rotation speed. These findings suggest that sub-micrometer negatively charged E ring dust contributes to the plasma dynamics in the plasma disk. We calculated the ion speeds by using multicomponent MHD equations, taking into account dust interactions to investigate the effects of ion-dust coulomb collision, mass loading, as well as taking into account magnetosphere-ionosphere coupling to investigate the effect of the magnetospheric electric field. The results show that the ion speeds can be significantly reduced by the electric fields generated by the ion-dust collisions when the dust density is high and the thickness of dust distribution is large. We also show that the ion speeds from our model are consistent with the LP observations when the maximum density of dust is larger than ~10\^5 m\^-3.

Ämnesord

NATURVETENSKAP  -- Fysik -- Fusion, plasma och rymdfysik (hsv//swe)

NATURAL SCIENCES  -- Physical Sciences -- Fusion, Plasma and Space Physics (hsv//eng)

Publikations- och innehållstyp

ref (ämneskategori)

kon (ämneskategori)