Astronomy and Astrophysics – Astronomy
Scientific paper
Jan 1993
adsabs.harvard.edu/cgi-bin/nph-data_query?bibcode=1993phdt........41h&link_type=abstract
PhD Dissertation, Cornell Univ. Ithaca, NY United States
Astronomy and Astrophysics
Astronomy
1
Satellite Atmospheres, Satellite Surfaces, Triton, Astronomical Photometry, Voyager 2 Spacecraft, Equatorial Regions, Polar Caps, Light Scattering, Backscattering, Composition (Property), Haze, Ice, Forward Scattering
Scientific paper
This thesis focuses on analyzing the photometry of Triton using images obtained by the Voyager 2 cameras. Photometry is the study of how the light scattering behavior of a body varies with changes in illumination and viewing geometry and the wavelength of the scattered light. Photometry provides valuable insights into the properties of the surface and atmospheres of planetary bodies. These include constraints on atmospheric aerosol properties such as particle size, shape, and composition, while surface properties such as the surface composition, roughness, texture, porosity, surface particle size and opacity can also be constrained. Triton poses a challenging photometric interpretation because both the properties of its thin haze and surface must be ascertained. This thesis first presents a photometric model for Triton to account for both its haze and surface and then this model is fit to both whole disk and disk-resolved observations as provided by the Voyager 2 spacecraft. Triton is bright with a bolometric Bond albedo of 0.82 +/- 0.05 implying, along with a surface temperature of 37.5 K, an unusually low emissivity of 0.59 +/- 0.16. Triton's surface is found to be unusually smooth with average topographic slope angle approximately less than 15 deg. The south polar cap is bright and slightly reddish, consistent with nitrogen ice with minor reddish contaminants. The bluer equatorial collar is consistent with a fresh nitrogen frost with consequently lower concentrations of contaminants. The equatorial regions are found to be nearly isotropically scattering, in contrast to the moderately backscattering equatorial collar or polar cap. The haze is thin with a wavelength dependent optical depth ranging from 0.036 in the green to 0.063 in violet. This, along with the degree of forward scattering exhibited by the haze both yield a particle size of 0.2 - 0.4 microns for the haze. The haze particles are bright and neutrally colored, suggestive of ice condensates, probably nitrogen.
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