Electron density dropout near Enceladus in the context of water‐vapor and water‐ice

Abstract

On 12 March 2008, the Cassini spacecraft made a close encounter with the Saturnian moon Enceladus, passing within 52 km of the moon. The spacecraft trajectory was intentionally‐oriented in a southerly direction to create a close alignment with the intense water‐dominated plumes emitted from the south polar region. During the passage, the Cassini Radio and Plasma Wave System (RPWS) detected two distinct radio signatures: 1) Impulses associated with small water‐ice dust grain impacts and 2) an upper hybrid (UH) resonance emission that both intensified and displayed a sharp frequency decrease in the near‐vicinity of the moon. The frequency decrease of the UH emission is associated with an unexpectedly sharp decrease in electron density from ∼90 el/cm3 to below 20 el/cm3 that occurs on a time scale of a minute near the closest encounter with the moon. In this work, we consider a number of scenarios to explain this sharp electron dropout, but surmise that electron absorption by ice grains is the most likely process.