Plasma Structures at the Enceladus Plume

Sammanfattning: Cassini-RPWS high resolution (20 Hz) Langmuir probe data was analyzed to find the source of fast variations in the electron density especially in the Enceladus plume region. The spatial scale on the variations is between 1 and 10 km in size. The approaches were to check for correlations between the plasma density and its variations on one hand, and boundary conditions such as the cracks on Enceladus surface as well as dust and single jets on the other hand. None of these mechanisms could be identified as the only or dominating source of observed fine structure, though partial correlation can sometimes be found and the comparison to dust presence is qualitative more than quantitative. Along the way the charging mechanism in the plume was found to be most likely due to solar UV ionization since the maximum electron density was found to be around 200km altitude. Also the deformation of the plume in the corotation direction is visible in the 20 Hz data.