Journal article
An estimate of the dust pickup current at Enceladus
Icarus (New York, N.Y. 1962), Vol.239, pp.217-221
09/01/2014
DOI: 10.1016/j.icarus.2014.05.034
Abstract
•Submicron dust in the Enceladus plume absorbs electrons.•Cassini’s Langmuir Probe observed a difference in ion and electron charge density.•The Langmuir Probe also infers the environmental E-field via plasma flow slowdown.•Given these two observations, an estimate of local pickup dust currents is derivable.
We demonstrate that the acceleration of submicron dust originating at Enceladus by a reduced co-rotating E-field is capable of creating a dust pickup current perpendicular to the magnetic field with values ranging from 3 to 15kA (depending upon the effective grain charge). Such a current represents a new contribution to the total pickup current in the region. As such, we suggest that dust pickup currents, along with ion and electron pickup currents, are all active within the plume.
Details
- Title: Subtitle
- An estimate of the dust pickup current at Enceladus
- Creators
- W.M. Farrell - Goddard Space Flight CenterJ.-E. Wahlund - Swedish Institute of Space PhysicsM. Morooka - Swedish Institute of Space PhysicsD.A. Gurnett - University of IowaW.S. Kurth - University of IowaR.J. MacDowall - Goddard Space Flight Center
- Resource Type
- Journal article
- Publication Details
- Icarus (New York, N.Y. 1962), Vol.239, pp.217-221
- DOI
- 10.1016/j.icarus.2014.05.034
- ISSN
- 0019-1035
- eISSN
- 1090-2643
- Publisher
- Elsevier Inc
- Language
- English
- Date published
- 09/01/2014
- Academic Unit
- Physics and Astronomy
- Record Identifier
- 9984455280902771
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