Extreme densities in Titan's ionosphere during the T85 magnetosheath encounter
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Issue Date
2013-06-28Author
Edberg, N. J. T.
Andrews, D. J.
Shebanits, O.
Ågren, K.
Wahlund, J.-E.
Opgenoorth, H. J.
Roussos, E.
Garnier, P.
Cravens, Thomas Edward
Badman, S. V.
Modolo, R.
Bertucci, C.
Dougherty, M. K.
Publisher
American Geophysical Union
Type
Article
Article Version
Scholarly/refereed, publisher version
Metadata
Show full item recordAbstract
We present Cassini Langmuir probe measurements of the highest electron number densities ever reported from the ionosphere of Titan. The measured density reached 4310 cm−3 during the T85 Titan flyby. This is at least 500 cm−3 higher than ever observed before and at least 50% above the average density for similar solar zenith angles. The peak of the ionospheric density is not reached on this flyby, making the maximum measured density a lower limit. During this flyby, we also report that an impacting coronal mass ejection (CME) leaves Titan in the magnetosheath of Saturn, where it is exposed to shocked solar wind plasma for at least 2 h 45 min. We suggest that the solar wind plasma in the magnetosheath during the CME conditions significantly modifies Titan's ionosphere by an addition of particle impact ionization by precipitating protons.
Description
This is the publisher's version, also available electronically from http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/grl.50579/abstract.
ISSN
0094-8276Collections
Citation
Edberg et at. (2013). Extreme densities in Titan’s ionosphere during the T85 magnetosphere encounter. Geophys. Res. Lett. 40:2879. http://www.dx.doi.org/10.1002/grl.50579
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