Modeling the Enceladus dust plume based on in situ measurements performed with the Cassini Cosmic Dust Analyzer

¹ Space Physics and Astronomy Research Unit, University of Oulu, Finland
e-mail: vveyzaa@gmail.com
² Institut für Geologische Wissenschaften, Freie Universität Berlin, Germany
e-mail: juergen.schmidt@fu-berlin.de
³ Universität Stuttgart, Institut für Raumfahrtsysteme, Stuttgart, Germany
⁴ Laboratory for Atmospheric and Space Physics, University of Colorado, Boulder, USA
⁵ Los Alamos National Laboratory, Los Alamos, USA

Received: 18 April 2024
Accepted: 3 July 2024

Abstract

We analyzed data recorded by the Cosmic Dust Analyzer on board the Cassini spacecraft during Enceladus dust plume traversals. Our focus was on profiles of relative abundances of grains of different compositional types derived from mass spectra recorded with the Dust Analyzer subsystem during the Cassini flybys E5 and E17. The E5 profile, corresponding to a steep and fast traversal of the plume, has already been analyzed. In this paper, we included a second profile from the E17 flyby involving a nearly horizontal traversal of the south polar terrain at a significantly lower velocity. Additionally, we incorporated dust detection rates from the High Rate Detector subsystem during flybys E7 and E21. We derived grain size ranges in the different observational data sets and used these data to constrain parameters for a new dust plume model. This model was constructed using a mathematical description of dust ejection implemented in the software package DUDI. Further constraints included published velocities of gas ejection, positions of gas and dust jets, and the mass production rate of the plume. Our model employs two different types of sources: diffuse sources of dust ejected with a lower velocity and jets with a faster and more colimated emission. From our model, we derived dust mass production rates for different compositional grain types, amounting to at least 28 kg s⁻¹. Previously, salt-rich dust was believed to dominate the plume mass based on E5 data alone. The E17 profile shows a dominance of organic-enriched grains over the south polar terrain, a region not well constrained by E5 data. By including both E5 and E17 profiles, we find the salt-rich dust contribution to be at most 1% by mass. This revision also results from an improved understanding of grain masses of various compositional types that implies smaller sizes for salt-rich grains. Our new model can predict grain numbers and masses for future mission detectors during plume traversals.