Pickup ion phase space distributions: Effects of atmospheric spatial gradients

Abstract

Spatial variations of the neutral source gases of pickup ions are known to affect the velocity distributions of the ions. An expression for the phase space density of pickup ions is derived from the Vlasov equation with a delta function ion source in velocity space that explicitly accounts for the spatial variation of the neutral gas. The background plasma velocity is uniform and perpendicular to a constant ambient magnetic field, which together produce a uniform motional electric field. The neutral source density is one dimensional, varying exponentially along the flow axis with a fixed scale height. The solutions apply to the limiting case of a weak interaction with negligible mass loading. The resulting ring distribution is applied to two examples approximating these criteria; i.e., pickup ions formed in the solar wind interaction with the Earth's Moon and the interaction of Saturn's rotating magnetosphere with Titan. A fundamental parameter appears in the resulting phase space density expression; namely, α = rg/H, the ratio of the gyroradius to the scale height. When α ≪ 1, the interaction is fluid‐like with all orbit phases of pickup ion cycloidal motion present at an observation point. If α ≫ 1, the pickup ions appear as ion beams, where the phase space distribution peaks over a small velocity range at an observation site in the source region and the ions will have only executed the beginning phases of their cycloidal motion. The principal contribution to the ions in the velocity peak derives from ions born over a neutral scale height upstream from the observation site. The pickup ion phase space density expression, constrained by spacecraft plasma ion spectrometer and magnetometer measurements, can be used to estimate the neutral source densities of a planetary body's exosphere and its composition. Potential applications are the lunar surface composition, Venus' atmospheric interaction with the solar wind, the interaction of the Galilean moons with Jupiter's magnetosphere, Saturn's icy moons interacting with its magnetosphere, and Titan's interaction with Saturn's magnetosphere.