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Morphology of the magnetic field near Titan: Hybrid model study of the Cassini T9 flyby
Author(s) -
Kallio E.,
Sillanpää I.,
Jarvinen R.,
Janhunen P.,
Dougherty M.,
Bertucci C.,
Neubauer F.
Publication year - 2007
Publication title -
geophysical research letters
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 2.007
H-Index - 273
eISSN - 1944-8007
pISSN - 0094-8276
DOI - 10.1029/2007gl030827
Subject(s) - titan (rocket family) , spacecraft , magnetic field , physics , plasma , ion , magnetohydrodynamics , polar , astrobiology , computational physics , astronomy , nuclear physics , quantum mechanics
We study the deformation and morphology of the magnetic field near Titan by a three‐dimensional numerical quasi‐neutral hybrid model (HYB‐Titan). We analyze two runs, one in which the sub‐rotating plasma consists of oxygen (O + ) ions and protons (H + ) and another with only protons. We find that both cases result in the generation of Alfvén wing‐like flux tubes. In comparison with the proton‐only case, the direction and magnitude of the magnetic field in the oxygen‐rich flow case are in better agreement with Cassini magnetic field observations during its Titan T9 flyby on Dec. 26, 2006, suggesting that the sub‐rotating plasma contained heavy ions. The oxygen‐rich run also supports the hypotheses that (1) the sub‐rotating flow direction was offset by ∼30°–40° from the ideal rotating flow direction and that (2) the spacecraft was magnetically connected to the sunlit side of near‐Titan space in the tail when it approached Titan on the T9 flyby.