The Atmosphere of Uranus: Vertical Aerosol Structure and Horizontal Inhomogeneity

Details The Atmosphere of Uranus: Vertical Aerosol Structure and Horizontal Inhomogeneity The Atmosphere of Uranus: Vertical Aerosol Structure and Horizontal Inhomogeneity

Jul 1996

adsabs.harvard.edu/cgi-bin/nph-data_query?bibcode=1996hst..prop.6818h&link_type=abstract

HST Proposal ID #6818

Physics

Hst Proposal Id #6818 Solar System

Scientific paper

In the past few years, evidence is emerging that the atmosphere of the distant gas giant Uranus may be beginning to undergo interesting changes as the planet moves away from southern summer solstice in 1986 toward equinox in 2007. The planet's equatorial region is now moving into sunlight after being in darkness for many years, and historical data along with recent HST images suggest that discrete cloud structure may become more common over the next decade. In Cycle 6, we propose to image Uranus to document these changes. The goal is to model the present distribution of vertical aerosols. Uranus is getting darker, but current vertical aerosol models cannot reproduce this secular change without invoking very large and unlikely variations in color and/or distribution of vertical aerosols. It is not clear whether seasonal or latitudinal effects {or both} are creating this discrepancy. We will separate these possibilities by modeling the yearly observed aerosol distribution using both the center-to-limb reflectivity as a function of latitude and the wavelength-dependent reflectivity of the atmosphere {and of individual features if any are detected}. Observations will be coordinated with groundbased imaging and photometry, linking the HST data to a 22-year record of photometry.

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