Energetic Ion Moments and Polytropic Index in Saturn’s Magnetosphere using Cassini/MIMI Measurements: A Simple Model Based on κ‐Distribution Functions

Moments of the charged particle distribution function provide a compact way of studying the transport, acceleration, and interactions of plasma and energetic particles in the magnetosphere. We employ κ‐distributions to describe the energy spectra of H+ and O+, based on >20 keV measurements by the three detectors of Cassini’s Magnetospheric Imaging Instrument, covering the time period from DOY 183/2004 to 016/2016, 5 < L < 20. From the analytical spectra we calculate the equatorial distributions of energetic ion moments inside Saturn’s magnetosphere and then focus on the distributions of the characteristic energy (Ec=IE/In), temperature, and κ‐index of these ions. A semiempirical model is utilized to simulate the equatorial ion moments in both local time and L‐shell, allowing the derivation of the polytropic index (Γ) for both H+ and O+. Primary results are as follows: (a) The ∼9 < L < 20 region corresponds to a local equatorial acceleration region, where subadiabatic transport of H+ (Γ∼1.25) and quasi‐isothermal behavior of O+ (Γ∼0.95) dominate the ion energetics; (b) energetic ions are heavily depleted in the inner magnetospheric regions, and their behavior appears to be quasi‐isothermal (Γ