The atomic hydrogen cloud in the saturnian system

The importance of Titanʹs H torus shaped by solar radiation pressure and of hydrogen atoms flowing out of Saturnʹs atmosphere in forming the broad hydrogen cloud in Saturnʹs magnetosphere is still debated. Since the Saturnian system also contains a water product torus which originates from the Enceladus plumes, the icy ring particles, and the inner icy satellites, as well as Titanʹs H2 torus, we have carried out a global investigation of the atomic hydrogen cloud taking into account all sources. We show that the velocity and angle distributions of the hot H ejected from Saturnʹs atmosphere following electron-impact dissociation of H2 are modified by collisions with the ambient atmospheric H2 and H. This in turn affects the morphology of the escaping hydrogen from Saturn, as does the morphology of the ionospheric electron distribution. Although an exact agreement with the Cassini observations is not obtained, our simulations show that H directly escaping from Titan is the dominant contributor in the outer magnetosphere. Of the total number of H observed by Cassini from 1 to 5RS, ∼5.7×1034, our simulations suggest ∼20% is from dissociation in the Enceladus torus, ∼5–10% is from dissociation of H2 in the atmosphere of the main rings, and ∼50% is from Titanʹs H torus, implying that ∼20% comes from Saturn atmosphere.