Hybrid Simulation Results for Titan compared with Cassini/MAG data from T9 flyby

SILLANPAA, I.; KALLIO, E.; JARVINEN, R.; JANHUNEN, P.; BERTUCCI, C.; DOUGHERTY, M. K.; NEUBAUER, F. M.

Congreso; European Planetary Science Congress 2006; 2006

Cassini probe made its first flyby through Titan's wake further down the tail on December 26th, 2005. During this T9 flyby the direction of the local magnetic field of Saturn's magnetosphere was nearly along Titan's orbital plane and the current sheet between the magnetic tail lobes was in an angle of 34 degrees to the nominal orbital tangent. We have made hybrid simulation runs using these parameters and present results for this important flyby. The tail structure seems to have been distorted significantly from the nominal case. We also compare our results with the measurements from the MAG magnetometer. The plasma interaction of the atmosphere of Titan and the rotating magnetospheric plasma of Saturn is unique in the solar system and the modelling effort has recently been significant. Our 3-dimensional model consists of simulation particles for different ions species, a charge-neutralizing electron fluid and non-radiative electrodynamics. This arrangement makes it possible to make self-consistent studies of coupled ion kinetics and electromagnetism in a global scale. For this T9 case we have used + a plasma flow composed of protons and H2 ions and the emission ion species were + + CH4 and N2 .