Abstract
Titan’s ionosphere hosts a globally distributed non-trivial dusty
ion-ion plasma, providing an environment for studies of dusty
ionospheres that is in many aspects unique in our solar system. Thanks
to the Cassini mission, Titan’s ionosphere also features one of the
largest dusty plasma datasets from 126 flybys of the moon over 13 years,
from 2004 to 2017. Recent studies have shown that negatively charged
dust dramatically alters the electric properties of plasmas, in
particular planetary ionospheres. Utilizing the full plasma content of
the moon’s ionosphere (electrons, positive ions and negative ions/dust
grains), we derive the electric conductivities and define the conductive
dynamo region. Our results show that using the full plasma content
increases the Pedersen conductivities at ~1300 km
altitude by 20% compared to the earlier estimates without charged dust,
while the Hall conductivities indicate a reverse Hall effect at
~900 km altitude (closest approach) and below. The
dayside conductivities are shown to be factor ~7-9
larger than on the nightside, owing to higher dayside plasma densities.