Microwave absorptivity in the Saturn atmosphere from Cassini Radio Science

Details Microwave absorptivity in the Saturn atmosphere from Cassini Radio Science Microwave absorptivity in the Saturn atmosphere from Cassini Radio Science

Dec 2011

adsabs.harvard.edu/cgi-bin/nph-data_query?bibcode=2011agufm.p13c1687k&link_type=abstract

American Geophysical Union, Fall Meeting 2011, abstract #P13C-1687

Physics

[0343] Atmospheric Composition And Structure / Planetary Atmospheres, [5704] Planetary Sciences: Fluid Planets / Atmospheres, [6275] Planetary Sciences: Solar System Objects / Saturn

Scientific paper

Since 2005, the Cassini spacecraft has collected data from numerous radio occultations by the atmosphere of Saturn. These occultations probed a wide range of latitudes, ranging from equatorial to near-polar. The radio system of Cassini transmits three coherent downlinks to Earth at S-Band (13.04 cm), X-Band (3.56 cm), and Ka-Band (0.94 cm) wavelengths. With the Deep Space Net 70 m receiving stations, The signal-to-noise ratio (SNR) is approximately 48 dB at X-Band, and 38 dB at S-band. At Ka-band, 34 m DSN stations are used, resulting in an SNR of about 41 dB. These SNRs are quite adequate to follow the signals through the top of the microwave-absorbing regions before the noise-floor is reached. By subtracting the refractive defocusing attenuation in the atmosphere (derived from the phase data) from the total attenuation, one obtains the attenuation due to absorption (dB0, which can then be inverted to obtain vertical profiles of absorptivity (dB km-1 ) at each of the three wavelengths. Preliminary results show the expected large effect of wavelength on the absorptivity profiles, with the shorter wavelength signals being absorbed higher in the atmosphere. These profiles can be used to estimate the vertical density profiles of known microwave absorbers, such as NH3 and PH3, examples of which are presented .This work was performed at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory, California Institute of Technology, San Jose State University, and NASA Goddard Space Flight Center with support from the Cassini program.

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