Internal Versus External Sources of Plasma at Saturn: Overview From Magnetospheric Imaging Investigation/Charge‐Energy‐Mass Spectrometer Data

Abstract

AbstractPlasma composition observations provide a useful mechanism for investigating plasma sources and subsequent evolution within planetary magnetospheres. While He++ is the second most abundant ion species in the solar wind, there are no known sources of He++ ions within the magnetosphere of Saturn, allowing He++ to serve as a tracer of solar wind ions within the Kronian magnetosphere. Meanwhile, water group ions (W+, consisting of O+, OH+, H2O+, and H3O+) and H2+, known to originate within the magnetosphere of Saturn, serve as a tracer of internally ionized plasma. In this paper, we investigate the relative abundances and properties of energetic (32–220 keV) ion species originating from sources within the magnetosphere and from the solar wind. Solar wind‐originating ions are observed to have significant relative abundance (up to ~0.05) in the midnight, dawn, and noon local time quadrants at high radial distances (~40, ~45, and ~20 RS, respectively). Several possible entry processes, such as reconnection and Kelvin‐Helmholtz instabilities, are outlined in this paper as well as a discussion of subsequent transport.