Interaction of Saturn's magnetosphere and its moons: 2. Shape of the Enceladus plume

The Saturnian moons in the inner magnetosphere are immersed in a plasma disk that rotates much faster than the moon's Keplerian speed. The interaction of the rotating plasma with the moons results in a disturbance in the Saturnian magnetospheric plasma that depends on the nature of obstacle that the moon represents. In particular at Enceladus, such perturbations in the magnetic field and flowing plasma enable us to infer the 3-D shape of the Enceladus plume and its outgassing rate. In this paper, we apply our 3-D magnetohydrodynamic model to extensively study the effects of different plume and disk plasma conditions on the interaction. By finding the best agreement with the observations of two diagnostic flybys, one with its point of closest approach on the upstream side and the other on the downstream side, we determine the plume intensity and configuration. We find that mass loading in the plume is less efficient close to the surface of the moon, where the neutral density is the highest. For E2 and E5, the opening angle of the plume is about 20, and the plume is tilted toward the corotating direction. The upstream density has a significant effect on the mass loading rate, while its effect on the magnitude of the magnetic perturbation is less significant. An upstream velocity component in the Saturn direction helps to explain the observed magnetic perturbation in the By component and signals the need to consider Enceladus's effect on the global plasma circulation in addition to the local effect. Quantitative comparisons of the simulated and observed interaction are provided.