Jupiter's North Polar Region: Mid-Infrared Aurora and Minor Constituents

Details Jupiter's North Polar Region: Mid-Infrared Aurora and Minor Constituents Jupiter's North Polar Region: Mid-Infrared Aurora and Minor Constituents

Sep 2009

adsabs.harvard.edu/cgi-bin/nph-data_query?bibcode=2009dps....41.2409k&link_type=abstract

American Astronomical Society, DPS meeting #41, #24.09

Astronomy and Astrophysics

Astronomy

Scientific paper

High spectral resolution measurements at 12 µm wavelength in the polar regions of Jupiter reveal unique information on auroral phenomena and upper stratospheric composition. A particularly localized bright region near 60 N latitude and 180 longitude (System III) has been studied using Voyager IRIS data and with mid-IR ground-based spectroscopic measurements, acquired since 1982. Results reveal a correlation between auroral brightness and solar activity that has not been observed in Jovian aurora at other wavelengths. Over nearly three solar cycles, Jupiter auroral ethane emission brightness and solar 10.7 cm radio flux and sunspot number are positively correlated with high confidence. Ethane line emission intensity varies over tenfold between low and high solar activity periods. This region has been shown to contain emission spectra of molecular constituents not found or not easily detected in quiescent regions. Detailed measurements have been made using the GSFC HIPWAC spectrometer at the NASA IRTF since the last solar maximum, following the mid-IR emission through the declining phase toward solar minimum. Even more convincing correlation with solar activity is evident in these data.
Measured spectra contain features that cannot be attributed to ethane and most likely represent minor constituents whose molecular bands overlap the ╫ band of ethane. Possible candidates are allene, propane, and other higher order hydrocarbons. Laboratory measurements of candidate molecules at comparable spectral resolution will be used to identify the constituents.
Current analyses of these results will be described, including planned measurements on polar ethane line emission scheduled from 2009 through the rise of the next solar maximum in 2012.
Results of observations at the Infrared Telescope Facility (IRTF) operated by the University of Hawaii under Cooperative Agreement no. NCC 5-538 with the National Aeronautics and Space Administration, Science Mission Directorate, Planetary Astronomy Program. This work was supported by the NASA Planetary Astronomy Program

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