P31C-3997:
Ion Cyclotron Waves at Titan
Wednesday, 17 December 2014
Christopher T Russell, Univ California, Los Angeles, CA, United States, Hanying Wei, University of California Los Angeles, Los Angeles, CA, United States, Misa Cowee, Los Alamos National Laboratory, Los Alamos, NM, United States, Fritz M Neubauer, University of Cologne, Cologne, Germany and Michele Karen Dougherty, Imperial College London, Blackett Laboratory, London, United Kingdom
Abstract:
The observation of ion cyclotron waves was generally expected well before Cassini arrived at Titan in 2004, because strong ion cyclotron waves were seen at Io where its atmosphere interacted with the corotating magnetospheric plasma. However, the region of the interaction of the Saturnian magnetospheric plasma with the Titan atmosphere has been quite devoid of ion cyclotron waves. Finally, on pass T63, ion cyclotron waves were seen briefly. More recently, on pass T98, a longer sequence of ion cyclotron waves also occurred. On pass T63, the pick-up ion signature is that of both H+ and H2+, while on pass T98, only H+ ion cyclotron waves are observed. We examine the strength of these waves and their region of occurrence in the light of our previous work on the expected occurrence of these waves.
