Astronomy and Astrophysics – Astronomy
Scientific paper
Dec 2009
adsabs.harvard.edu/cgi-bin/nph-data_query?bibcode=2009agufm.p43f..04w&link_type=abstract
American Geophysical Union, Fall Meeting 2009, abstract #P43F-04
Astronomy and Astrophysics
Astronomy
[6020] Planetary Sciences: Comets And Small Bodies / Ices, [6055] Planetary Sciences: Comets And Small Bodies / Surfaces, [6280] Planetary Sciences: Solar System Objects / Saturnian Satellites, [6949] Radio Science / Radar Astronomy
Scientific paper
The Cassini RADAR instrument acquired backscatter measurements from Iapetus' dark leading hemisphere over a full range of incidence angles (1 to 60 degrees) during the 2007 targeted flyby. We present here the first radar backscatter curve of an icy moon of Saturn other than Titan, and it indicates the presence of a small quasi-specular term (~3% of the total radar albedo). Quasi-specular scattering has not been previously detected in distant radar spectra of this moon. We model the dark side's backscatter response as a composite of the linear superposition of two classical quasi-specular scattering laws plus a diffuse cosine power law. We find that Iapetus' dark hemisphere has a rather low bulk dielectric constant that is consistent with a surface largely composed of porous organic tholins. We compare the Iapetus backscatter to those that we have measured for various features on Titan and find that, at our at 2.2 cm wavelength, the dark side of Iapetus scatters similarly to Titan's Xanadu feature, albeit with a much lower albedo. This finding is consistent with the theory that Iapetus' dark side comprises an icy volume scattering substrate that is coated by an attenuating dark layer.
Wye Lauren C.
Zebker Howard A.
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