The Induced Magnetosphere of Titan

RUSSELL, CHRISTOPHER T.; NEUBAUER, F. M.; DOUGHERTY, M. K.; BERTUCCI, C.; ARRIDGE, C. S.

Congreso; American Astronomical Society, DPS meeting #38; 2006

The large variety of Titan passes by Cassini has enabled a new portrait of its interaction with the Saturnian magnetosphere to be drawn. The Saturnian magnetosphere is stretched by the corotating plasma and bent upward around its edges, much like a bowl. At the present time Titan orbits beneath this bowl so that the ambient magnetic field at Titan´s orbit is almost continually inward toward Saturn, slightly southward and pointed in the direction of Saturn´s rotation. Superimposed on this is a broad region of weak draping that corresponds to a magnetosonic-fast-mode wave creating a compressional disturbance extending far upstream. Downstream from Titan is a slow-mode/Alfven-mode wake of enhanced and strongly bent magnetic field that corresponds to the classical Alfven wing seen at Io in the jovian system extending far from the satellite with the amplitude fading away slowly with increasing distance. This wake is strong enough to cause a flow-aligned reversal in the direction of the magnetic field.