Composition and sources of heavy ions in the outer Kronian magnetosphere

The Voyager 1 Plasma Science (PLS) experiment observed heavy ions near the equatorial plane of Saturn. The plasma density, as masured by the electrons, increased precipitously at L 18 on both the inbound and outbound passes and continued to increase rapidly into the boundary of the inner plasma region. The ion plasma contains both cold and dense material along with hot and more tenuous matter. The sources and sinks for this material which exist in the outer magnetosphere of Saturn and their implications for the composition of the heavy ion plasma are discussed