arXivDaily arXiv每日学术速递 周一至周五更新
arXiv 2008.07591astro-ph.EPphysics.space-ph
收藏

土卫六高层大气低质量负离子的空间变化

Spatial variations of low mass negative ions in Titan's upper atmosphere

Teodora Mihailescu, Ravindra Desai, Oleg Shebanits, Richard Haythornthwaite, Anne Wellbrock, Andrew Coates, Jonathan Eastwood, J. Hunter Waite

摘要:

卡西尼号的电子光谱仪在泰坦的电离层中发现了负离子,高度在1400到950公里之间。在高达几千amu的宽质量分布内,在25.8-26.0和49.0-50.1 amu/q处鉴别出两个不同的峰,对应于第一个峰的碳链阴离子$CN^-$和/或$C_2H^-$,以及第二个峰的碳链阴离子$C_3N^-$和/或$C_4H^-$。在这项研究中,我们提出了这些低质量的负离子的空间分布从2004年10月26日和2012年5月22日之间的有利观测28泰坦飞掠。我们报告的趋势,较低的密度在夜晚的一面和增加的密度高达两倍高的白天在小太阳天顶角。为了进一步理解这一趋势,我们将负离子密度与卡西尼号朗缪尔探测器测量的总电子密度进行了比较。我们发现,低质量负离子密度和电子密度在昼侧彼此成正比,而在夜侧彼此独立。这表明光化学过程,并与低质量负离子的主要生产途径是由解离反应与超热电子群体产生的光电离。我们还发现,$CN^-/C_2H^-$的比例$C_3N^-/C_4H^-$高度限制在白天的一面,在协议与此生产渠道,但显着显示大的变化在夜侧。

英文摘要:

Observations with Cassini's Electron Spectrometer discovered negative ions in Titan's ionosphere, at altitudes between 1400 and 950 km. Within the broad mass distribution extending up to several thousand amu, two distinct peaks were identified at 25.8-26.0 and 49.0-50.1 amu/q, corresponding to the carbon chain anions $CN^-$ and/or $C_2H^-$ for the first peak and $C_3N^-$ and/or $C_4H^-$ for the second peak. In this study we present the spatial distribution of these low mass negative ions from 28 Titan flybys with favourable observations between 26 October 2004 and 22 May 2012. We report a trend of lower densities on the night side and increased densities up to twice as high on the day side at small solar zenith angles. To further understand this trend, we compare the negative ion densities to the total electron density measured by Cassini's Langmuir Probe. We find the low mass negative ion density and the electron density to be proportional to each other on the dayside, but independent of each other on the night side. This indicates photochemical processes and is in agreement with the primary production route for the low mass negative ions being initiated by dissociative reactions with suprathermal electron populations produced by photoionisation. We also find the ratio of $CN^-/C_2H^-$ to $C_3N^-/C_4H^-$ highly constrained on the day-side, in agreement with this production channel, but notably displays large variations on the nightside.

机构、总结、中文摘要均由AI分析而来,可能存在错误,请以论文正文为准。

↑