Determining the induced and intrinsic fields of Titan

Abstract:

Cassini mission has obtained abundant measurements around Titan and along its orbit, allowing us to better understand Titan’s plasma interaction with its environment and estimate the induced and intrinsic fields from Titan’s interior. The magnetic state of Titan could provide important constraints on its interior structures. The presence of an induced field indicates that there are conductive layer/layers in the interior, while the presence and strength of a dynamo-driven intrinsic field provide information on the dynamics in the interior and the thermal state of the material deep inside. When estimating the induced and intrinsic fields of Titan, the most important technique and biggest difficulty is to separate the field generated by the interaction between Titan’s ionosphere and its plasma environment from that generated from Titan’s interior. Therefore we use MHD simulations to predict the fields from external and internal sources. By comparing observations with simulations, we can search for the signatures of the induced field of Titan and improve the accuracy of our previous intrinsic field estimates.