Ionization balance in Titan's nightside ionosphere, Icarus (2014), doi: http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.icarus. 2014.11.012 This is a PDF file of an unedited manuscript that has been accepted for publication. As a service to our customers we are providing this early version of the manuscript. The manuscript will undergo copyediting, typesetting, and review of the resulting proof before it is published in its final form. Please note that during the production process errors may be discovered which could affect the content, and all legal disclaimers that apply to the journal pertain.
ABSTRACTBased on a multi-instrumental Cassini dataset we make model versus observation comparisons of plasma number densities, n P =(n e n I ) 1/2 (n e and n I being the electron number density and total positive ion number density, respectively) and short-lived ion number densities (N + , CH 2 + , CH 3 + , CH 4 + ) in the southern hemisphere of Titan's nightside ionosphere over altitudes ranging from 1100 and 1200 km and from 1100 to 1350 km, respectively. The n P model assumes photochemical equilibrium, ionelectron pair production driven by magnetospheric electron precipitation and dissociative recombination as the principal plasma neutralization process. The model to derive short-lived-ion number densities assumes photochemical equilibrium for the short-lived ions, primary ion production by electron-impact ionization of N 2 and CH 4 and removal of the short-lived ions through reactions with CH 4 . It is shown that the models reasonably reproduce the observations, both with regards to n P and the number densities of the short-lived ions. This is contrasted by the difficulties in accurately reproducing ion and electron number densities in Titan's sunlit ionosphere.