The role of ion-molecule reactions in the growth of heavy ions in Titan's ionosphere

The Ion and Neutral Mass Spectrometer (INMS) and Cassini Plasma Spectrometer (CAPS) have observed Titan's ionospheric composition and structure over several targeted flybys. In this work we study the altitude profiles of the heavy ion population observed by the Cassini Plasma Spectrometer‐Ion Beam Spectrometer (CAPS‐IBS) during the nightside T57 flyby. We produce altitude profiles of heavy ions from the C6–C13 group (Ci indicates the number, i, of heavy atoms in the molecule) using a CAPS‐IBS/INMS cross calibration. These altitude profiles reveal structure that indicates a region of initial formation and growth at altitudes below 1200 km followed by a stagnation and dropoff at the lowest altitudes (1050 km). We suggest that an ion‐molecule reaction pathway could be responsible for the production of the heavy ions, namely reactions that utilize abundant building blocks such as C2H2 and C2H4, which have been shown to be energetically favorable and that have already been identified as ion growth patterns for the lighter ions detected by the INMS. We contrast this growth scenario with alternative growth scenarios determining the implications for the densities of the source heavy neutrals in each scenario. We show that the high‐mass ion density profiles are consistent with ion‐molecule reactions as the primary mechanism for large ion growth. We derive a production rate for benzene from electron recombination of C6H7+ of 2.4 × 10−16 g cm−2 s−1 and a total production rate for large molecules of 7.1 × 10−16 g cm−2 s−1. Key Points Ion‐molecule reactions are responsible for the growth of Titan's heavy ions Titan's heavy ions are built from the atmospheric building blocks C2H2 and C2H4 These ions are a source of heavy hydrocarbons observed throughout the atmosphere