Sensitivity of a Titan ionospheric model to the ion-molecule reaction parameters

Abstract : Various aspects of ion-molecule reactions for Titan ionospheric chemistry modeling are reviewed in this work: temperature/collision energy effects on reaction rates and, more importantly, on products distributions; differential reactivity of isomers of ions; reactivity of excited states of ions; pathways to the building of complex ions. We evaluate here the extent to which these points affect model predictions. We find that the present limiting factors to model predictivity are the model incompleteness for heavy ion production pathways; the differential reactivity of isomers; and, to a lesser degree, the temperature effects on the branching ratios of ion-molecule reactions. Extensive experimental studies are required to fill these gaps in ion-molecule reactivity knowledge.