CIRS-CASSINI Prime mission on Saturn’s B ring : infrared optical depths and energy balance

Details CIRS-CASSINI Prime mission on Saturn’s B ring : infrared optical depths and energy balance CIRS-CASSINI Prime mission on Saturn’s B ring : infrared optical depths and energy balance

Dec 2009

adsabs.harvard.edu/cgi-bin/nph-data_query?bibcode=2009agufm.p54a..09f&link_type=abstract

American Geophysical Union, Fall Meeting 2009, abstract #P54A-09

Computer Science

Sound

[5422] Planetary Sciences: Solid Surface Planets / Ices, [5465] Planetary Sciences: Solid Surface Planets / Rings And Dust, [6265] Planetary Sciences: Solar System Objects / Planetary Rings

Scientific paper

Azimuthal and radial scans of Saturn’s B ring have been executed by the CIRS-CASSINI infrared spectrometer all along the Cassini Prime mission (2004-2008). Temperatures of the lit and unlit faces of this thick ring were measured, along the azimuth or at constant angular distances or delays from the shadow ingress and egress, with various emission angles. Measurements at high spacecraft elevation in 2008 have succeeded in sounding its infrared optical depth, up to 4, despite low spatial resolution (1000-1500km). The four rings B1, B2, B3 and B4 (Marouf et al. 2006) have been identified, with optical depths ranging between [0.8-1.5], [1.5-3.5], [2-4] and [1.6-3.5] respectively. Azimuthal scans of the unlit face do not exhibit any significant transient thermal regime in the area of the planetary shadow, nor azimuthal asymmetries. Yet the temperatures of the unlit face of these rings depend with a very simple law on the solar elevation and on Saturn infrared flux. They decrease with increasing optical depth, most probably due to mutual shadowing. Yet, on the lit face, the thickest rings are locally hotter where they should be colder due to this same mutual shadowing. This local increase in temperature disappears very quickly as particles enter eclipse into the shadow. Mutual heating between lit particles might be involved here. Other implications on the energy balance and vertical structure of these rings will be addressed.

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