Empirical Photochemical Modeling of Saturn’s Ionization Balance Including Grain Charging

Abstract We present a semianalytical photochemical model of Saturn’s near-equatorial ionosphere and adapt it to two regions (∼2200 and ∼1700 km above the 1 bar level) probed during the inbound portion of Cassini’s orbit 292 (2017 September 9). The model uses as input the measured concentrations of molecular hydrogen, hydrogen ion species, and free electrons, as well as the measured electron temperature. The output includes upper limits, or constraints, on the mixing ratios of two families of molecules, on ion concentrations, and on the attachment rates of electrons and ions onto dust grains. The model suggests mixing ratios of the two molecular families that, particularly near ∼1700 km, differ notably from what independent measurements by the Ion Neutral Mass Spectrometer suggest. Possibly connected to this, the model suggests an electron-depleted plasma with a level of electron depletion of around 50%. This is in qualitative agreement with interpretations of Radio Plasma Wave Science/Langmuir Probe measurements, but an additional conundrum arises in the fact that a coherent photochemical equilibrium scenario then relies on a dust component with typical grain radii smaller than 3 Å.