Shape and Topography of Saturn's Satellites from Imaging Data

Details Shape and Topography of Saturn's Satellites from Imaging Data Shape and Topography of Saturn's Satellites from Imaging Data

Dec 2010

adsabs.harvard.edu/cgi-bin/nph-data_query?bibcode=2010agufm.p21b1603g&link_type=abstract

American Geophysical Union, Fall Meeting 2010, abstract #P21B-1603

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Applications

[5464] Planetary Sciences: Solid Surface Planets / Remote Sensing, [6055] Planetary Sciences: Comets And Small Bodies / Surfaces, [6280] Planetary Sciences: Solar System Objects / Saturnian Satellites, [6297] Planetary Sciences: Solar System Objects / Instruments And Techniques

Scientific paper

Detailed global and local digital topographies of eight of Saturn's satellites are being constructed from ensembles of overlapping maplets which completely cover the visible surfaces. Each maplet is a digital representation of a piece of the surface topography and albedo constructed from imaging data with stereophotoclinometry. Multiple images projected onto the maplet provide brightness values at each pixel which are used in a least-squares estimation for slope and relative albedo. The slopes are then integrated to produce the topography solution. The central pixel of each maplet represents a control point, and the ensemble of these points is used in an estimation for their body-fixed locations, the rotational state of the body, and the position and attitude of the spacecraft. Applications of these data products include studies of cratering of icy bodies and the subsequent relaxation of the surface, while detailed shapes for the small, irregular satellites can be used to predict the surface gravity and local slope at high resolution. For a larger satellite, a precise shape determination is important because often the shape was frozen in when the body was in a different rotational state. This enables an analysis of the rotational and orbital histories of these bodies. The high resolution topography yields surface roughness, slopes, overall elevation variations, and fractal character of the surface.

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