3D Global MHD Simulation of Titan's interaction with its surrounding plasma

MA, Y.; NAGY, A. F.; TOTH, G.; NAJIB, D.; CRAVENS, T. E.; CRARY, F.; COATES, A. J.; BERTUCCI, C.; NEUBAUER, F. M.

Congreso; AGU Fall Meeting 2006; 2006

The interaction of Titan's ionosphere with its surrounding plasma flow is more complex than analogous solar wind-planet interactions, because of Titan's varying relative location in the Sun-Saturn system. We have studied the role of the angle between the direction of the solar radiation and the corotating plasma flow using our 3D multi-species MHD model. We also present results from a comparison between our model simulations and the observations corresponding to the T9 flyby of Cassini, using the measured upstream plasma parameters.