Other
Scientific paper
Dec 1996
adsabs.harvard.edu/cgi-bin/nph-data_query?bibcode=1996icar..124..663h&link_type=abstract
Icarus, Volume 124, Issue 2, pp. 663-676.
Other
8
Scientific paper
Six previously unseen Pan wakes are found interior and exterior to the Encke gap in Saturn's A ring, one in the Voyager 2 photopolarimeter (PPS) stellar occultation data and five in the Voyager 1 radio science (RSS) earth occultation data. Pan orbits at the center of the Encke gap and maintains it. Originally it was hypothesized that a wake would be completely damped by the time it reached a longitude of 360 deg relative to Pan. However, five of the six newly detected wakes are at longitudes in excess of 360 deg and are a result of earlier encounters with Pan. The sixth is the first detection of the RSS outer Pan wake. The new PPS inner wake is at a longitude of 389.8 deg. The new RSS inner wakes are at longitudes of 519.4 deg +/- 1.6 deg and 879.4 deg +/- 1.6 deg. The RSS outer wakes are at longitudes of 200.6 deg +/- 1.6 deg, 560.6 deg +/- 1.6 deg, and 920.6 deg +/- 1.6 deg. Because of the time needed for a wake to develop after encountering Pan, the higher order wakes (longitude >360 deg) can be more prominent than their lower order counterparts which are superimposed at the same location. The radial dispersion behavior of the Pan wakes are characterized using a Burg autoregressive power spectral algorithm. The wake radial wavelength behavior is compared to a simple model which ignores collisions and self-gravity. The four wakes with longitudes below 360 deg show an average deviation of 0-3% from the predicted wavelengths, indicative of the strength of collective effects. The detection of Pan wakes at longitudes greater than 360 deg demonstrates that wakes persist for much longer than originally hypothesized and may interact with one another. The presence and characteristics of these wakes will provide an important test of kinetic theory models.
Horn Linda J.
Russell Christopher T.
Showalter Robert M.
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