The lower ionosphere of Titan |
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| Authors: | LA Capone RC Whitten J Dubach SS Prasad WT Huntress |
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| Institution: | Space Science Division, Ames Research Center, NASA, Moffett Field, California 94035, USA;Department of Physics, Stanford University, Stanford, California 94305, USA;Jet Propulsion Laboratory, California Institute of Technology, Pasadena, California 91103, USA |
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| Abstract: | Ionization of the atmosphere of Titan by galactic cosmic rays is a very significant process throughout the altitude range of 100 to 400 km. An approximate form of the Boltzmann equation for cosmic ray transport has been used to obtain local ionization rates. Models of both ion and neutral chemistry have been employed to compute electron and ion density profiles for three different values of the H2/CH4 abundance ratio. The peak electron density is of the order 103 cm?3. The most abundant positive ions are C2H9+ and C3H9+, while the predicted densities of the negative ions H? and CH3? are very small (<10?4 that of the positive ions). It is suggested that inclusion of the ion chemistry is important in the computation of the H and CH3 density profiles in the lower ionosphere. |
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