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A new upper limit to the field-aligned potential near Titan

Coates, AJ; Wellbrock, A; Waite, JH; Jones, GH; (2015) A new upper limit to the field-aligned potential near Titan. Geophysical Research Letters , 42 (12) pp. 4676-4684. 10.1002/2015GL064474. Green open access

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Abstract

Neutral particles dominate regions of the Saturn magnetosphere and locations near several of Saturn's moons. Sunlight ionizes neutrals, producing photoelectrons with characteristic energy spectra. The Cassini plasma spectrometer electron spectrometer has detected photoelectrons throughout these regions, where photoelectrons may be used as tracers of magnetic field morphology. They also enhance plasma escape by setting up an ambipolar electric field, since the relatively energetic electrons move easily along the magnetic field. A similar mechanism is seen in the Earth's polar wind and at Mars and Venus. Here we present a new analysis of Titan photoelectron data, comparing spectra measured in the sunlit ionosphere at ~1.4 Titan radii (RT) and at up to 6.8 RT away. This results in an upper limit on the potential of 2.95 V along magnetic field lines associated with Titan at up to 6.8 RT, which is comparable to some similar estimates for photoelectrons seen in Earth's magnetosphere.

Type: Article
Title: A new upper limit to the field-aligned potential near Titan
Open access status: An open access version is available from UCL Discovery
DOI: 10.1002/2015GL064474
Publisher version: http://dx.doi.org/10.1002/2015GL064474
Language: English
Additional information: ©2015. The Authors. This is an open access article under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits use, distribution and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.
UCL classification: UCL
UCL > Provost and Vice Provost Offices > UCL BEAMS
UCL > Provost and Vice Provost Offices > UCL BEAMS > Faculty of Maths and Physical Sciences
UCL > Provost and Vice Provost Offices > UCL BEAMS > Faculty of Maths and Physical Sciences > Dept of Space and Climate Physics
URI: https://discovery.ucl.ac.uk/id/eprint/1468886
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