Induced Magnetospheres: Titan

C. BERTUCCI

Space Physics and Aeronomy, Volume 2, Magnetospheres in the Solar System

Wiley

Año: 2021;

Titan (RT = 2575 km, MT < 0.78 nT × RT^3), the largest moon of Saturn is the only satellite that possesses a dense atmosphere. Titan interacts most frequently with the submagnetosonic plasma of the Kronian magnetodisk. Apart from the orbital phase that approximately determines the angle between the incoming plasma velocity and the solar radiation direction, Titan?s interaction depends on its location within Saturn?s magnetodisk. As a result, upstream conditions change with Saturn?s seasons, solar wind pressure and the location of a magnetospheric perturbation phase-locked to Saturn?s kilometric radiation emissions. All these ingredients make Titan?s interaction hardly ever stationary. During high solar wind pressure periods, Titan has also been found in the shocked and even the unshocked solar wind. In the latter case, a small, supercritical bow shock was detected. Regardless of the properties of the plasma environment around Titan, a well-defined induced magnetosphere is formed. Sometimes, the induced magnetosphere is made of a collection of chronologically ordered layers of draped magnetic field lines with different directions (fossil fields).The plasma escape resulting from the interaction is associated with convective and polarization electric fields, but also with magnetic tension forces with loss rates that go up to 7×10^25 ions s-1.