The plasma interaction of Enceladus: 3D hybrid simulations and comparison with Cassini MAG data

Abstract

We study the interaction of Saturn's small, icy moon Enceladus and its plume with the corotating magnetospheric plasma by means of a 3D hybrid simulation model, which treats the ions as individual particles and the electrons as a massless, charge-neutralizing fluid. We analyze systematically how Enceladus’ internal conductivity and plasma absorption at the surface as well as charge exchange and pick-up in the plume contribute to the overall structure of the interaction region. Furthermore, we provide a comparison of our simulation results to data obtained by the Cassini magnetometer instrument. The major findings of this study are: (1) the magnetic field diffuses through the solid body of Enceladus almost unaffected, whereas plasma absorption gives rise to a symmetric depletion wake downstream of the moon; (2) due to the small gyroradii of the newly generated plume ions, the pick-up tail possesses a 2D structure; (3) the magnetic field lines drape around the plume, which triggers an Alfvén wing system that dominates the structure of Enceladus’ plasma environment. Inside the plume itself, a magnetic cavity is formed; (4) besides the reproduction of the key features of the observed magnetic field signatures, evidence for variability in the locations of the active jets and in the total gas content of the plume are shown.