Io's Atmosphere: UV Spectroscopy of Neutral and Molecular Components -- Cycle 4 High

Details Io's Atmosphere: UV Spectroscopy of Neutral and Molecular Components -- Cycle 4 High Io's Atmosphere: UV Spectroscopy of Neutral and Molecular Components -- Cycle 4 High

Jul 1994

adsabs.harvard.edu/cgi-bin/nph-data_query?bibcode=1994hst..prop.5438b&link_type=abstract

HST Proposal ID #5438

Computer Science

Hst Proposal Id #5438 Solar System Satellites

Scientific paper

HST observations of Io's neutral O and S FUV emissions revealed a large intensity drop as Io goes into eclipse, inconsistent with excitation of an O and S corona by torus electrons as the main excitation mechanism. Alternatively, a collapse of the bulk SO2 atmosphere or an ionospheric process possibly damped by recombination may be involved. A limited S/N HST measure of the spatial dependence of the S emission has shown that it may extend to high altitudes, far from the expected peak SO2 density, and IUE data has shown an E/W intensity asymmetry which may be related to torus asymmetries. These two observations are hard to reconcile with the eclipse picture, and we propose to make a sequence of high S/N spatial scans of the FUV emissions to measure the spatial distributions of the excitation region and of the neutral corona, respectively with optically thin and thick emissions, and to resolve any torus dependence. New FOS G190H observations have finally detected a tenous, extended SO2 atmosphere on Io's trailing side. We propose to now observe the leading side, together with trailing side observations with improved S/N, to measure asymmetries in the SO2 abundances that may arise from the distributions of SO2 frost and volcanic sources, asymmetries in the atmospheric temperature possibly related to the Io/torus interaction, and temporal variations in Io's major atmospheric component.

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