Sunshine On The Rings : The Opposition Effect Seen At High Resolution With CASSINI-ISS

Details Sunshine On The Rings : The Opposition Effect Seen At High Resolution With CASSINI-ISS Sunshine On The Rings : The Opposition Effect Seen At High Resolution With CASSINI-ISS

Sep 2006

adsabs.harvard.edu/cgi-bin/nph-data_query?bibcode=2006dps....38.5101d&link_type=abstract

American Astronomical Society, DPS meeting #38, #51.01; Bulletin of the American Astronomical Society, Vol. 38, p.577

Astronomy and Astrophysics

Astronomy

1

Scientific paper

In June 2005, the CASSINI-ISS camera system captured the opposition effect in the rings of Saturn. The opposition effect is characterized by a non-linear increase of brightness when the phase angle is near zero. With the ISS images, we have observed the brightness surge of the rings at phase angles as small as 0.001 degrees, far smaller than the Sun's angular diameter of 0.05 degrees at Saturn. Our data set shows opposition surges for features in the A, B, C, and F rings and the Cassini Division with unprecedented radial resolution. Phase functions from 0 to 10 degrees were derived in order to study the source of the opposition effect. Two different physical processes have been invoked to explain the opposition effect -- shadow hiding and coherent-backscattering -- but their respective roles are still a matter of debate because of the paucity of groundbased data at phase angles less than 0.3 degrees. We fit the derived phase curves with different models, including the empirical linear-exponential function of Kaasalainen et al., and Shkuratov and Hapke models. We find correlations between some output parameters of these models and relevant physical parameters of the rings, thus constraining the nature and optical properties of the rings.

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