P31C-4002:
Energy and Momentum Transfer from Saturn's Magnetosphere to Titan's Atmosphere
Wednesday, 17 December 2014
Stephen A Ledvina, University of California Berkeley, Berkeley, CA, United States, Stephen H Brecht, Bay Area Research Corp, Orinda, CA, United States and Jared Micheal Bell, National Institute of Aerospace, Yorktown, VA, United States
Abstract:
Knowing the energy and momentum flowing into Titan’s atmosphere is critical to understanding the structure and dynamics of that atmosphere. The goal of this research will be to develop a deeper understanding of energy and momentum transfer from Saturn’s magnetosphere into the neutral atmosphere of Titan. A hybrid particle code is used to examine the energy and momentum transferred to Titans atmosphere by ion precipitation and electron currents. The code includes models representing Titan's ion-neutral ionospheric chemistry, Hall and Pederson conductivities, ion-neutral collisions and atmospheric densities and winds from the TGITM atmospheric code. Energy and momentum maps will be created showing the energy and momentum transferred to the neutral atmosphere as functions of latitude, longitude and altitude.
