A New Dust Model for the Saturnian System: First results

The Saturnian system with its extended ring system is a prime target for cosmic dust research. Dusty rings are fed by a variety of processes and form a complex dust environment: in the case of the E ring, ice volcanism on Enceladus acts as its source, but dust particles  are also generated on other moons by the impact ejecta mechanism.

Here we present the new results from our model of dust in the Saturnian system that is currently  being developed as part of an ESA activity to predict the hazards for space missions. This kind of effort also provides a wealth of opportunities to address scientific questions. We present the results from our simulation runs covering a variety of source moons, but also discuss the technical aspects of the model and the effort that went into creating an adequate representation of Saturn's plasma environment for this activity.

The Saturn Dust model traces test particles from source to sink, ejected in the plumes of Enceladus feeding the E ring, and from impact ejecta processes
generating a low number of particles from other airless bodies. Their trajectories are numerically integrated taking into account all relevant forces and mechanisms, i.e. gravity, radiation pressure, Lorentz force, plasma drag, electric charging in the plasma environment,
and sputtering. 

We give an overview over the first simulation results from various source moons, and show the status of the GUI tool facilitating the use of the model. We discuss the calibration using existing observations, based predominantly on results from the Cassini mission, and we show the dynamical phenomena associated with dust in this environment reproduced by our model.