Monitoring Active Atmospheres on Uranus and Neptune

Details Monitoring Active Atmospheres on Uranus and Neptune Monitoring Active Atmospheres on Uranus and Neptune

Jul 2007

adsabs.harvard.edu/cgi-bin/nph-data_query?bibcode=2007hst..prop11156r&link_type=abstract

HST Proposal ID #11156. Cycle 16

Physics

Optics

Scientific paper

We propose Snapshot observations of Uranus and Neptune to monitor changes in their atmospheres on time scales of weeks and months. Uranus equinox is only months away, in December 2007. Hubble Space Telescope observations during the past several years Hammel et al. 2005, Icarus 175, 284 and references therein have revealed strongly wavelength-dependent latitudinal structure, the presence of numerous visible-wavelength cloud features in the northern hemisphere, at least one very long-lived discrete cloud in the southern hemisphere, and in 2006 the first dark spot ever seen on Uranus. Long-term ground-based observations Lockwood and Jerzekiewicz, 2006, Icarus 180, 442; Hammel and Lockwood 2007, Icarus 186, 291 reveal seasonal brightness changes whose origins are not well understood. Recent near-IR images of Neptune obtained using adaptive optics on the Keck Telescope, together with HST observations Sromovsky et al. 2003, Icarus 163, 256 and references therein which include previous Snapshot programs GO 8634, 10170, 10534 show a general increase in activity at south temperate latitudes until 2004, when Neptune returned to a rather Voyager-like appearance. Further Snapshot observations of these two dynamic planets will elucidate the nature of long-term changes in their zonal atmospheric bands and clarify the processes of formation, evolution, and dissipation of discrete albedo features.;

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