Global Features of Ion Distributions Near Titan

Plasma data from the Cassini Plasma Spectrometer experiment were used to investigate the properties of the variable plasma environment of Titan's orbit. Using Ion Mass Spectrometer data within +/- 3 hours of the Titan flybys we could identify the different encounter types proposed earlier (Rymer et al.) based on electron measurements. The ion data reveal differences not only in characteristic energy and density but in the ion composition as well. To be able to find (some of) the reasons of the variability of the plasma environment, we examined how the variations depend on the Saturnian local time (SLT) and on the position in the Saturn Kilometric Radiation (SKR) based SLS3 longitude system. Both SKR and SLT positions have significant influence on the plasma environment, which shows up in the clustering of the encounters of different types as well as in periodic variations of the ion moments.