Long-term Atmospheric Variability on Uranus and Neptune

Details Long-term Atmospheric Variability on Uranus and Neptune Long-term Atmospheric Variability on Uranus and Neptune

Sep 2006

adsabs.harvard.edu/cgi-bin/nph-data_query?bibcode=2006dps....38.1132h&link_type=abstract

American Astronomical Society, DPS meeting #38, #11.32; Bulletin of the American Astronomical Society, Vol. 38, p.502

Astronomy and Astrophysics

Astronomy

Scientific paper

Long-term photometric measurements of Uranus and Neptune through 2005 show variations in brightness. For Uranus, much of the variation can be interpreted as seasonal, i.e., caused by viewing angle changes of an oblate planet. The photometry suggests that if seasonal variations are on Uranus are north-south symmetric, then the northern pole should have begun to brighten in 2006. However, seasonal "aspect" changes cannot explain all the variation; the Uranus observations require intrinsic atmospheric change. Furthermore, Uranus observations spanning many scale heights in the atmosphere show similar change, indicating that the troposphere and lower stratosphere may be dynamically linked. For Neptune, variations in sub-solar latitude may explain the general shape of the long-term light curve, but significant deviations occur that have no satisfactory explanation at present. Observations are needed over a longer temporal baseline than currently exists to fully characterize both atmospheres. HBH acknowledges support for this work from NASA grants NAG5-11961 and NAG5 10451. The existence of the well-calibrated long-term data sets from Lowell Observatory made this paper possible; NASA grant NNG04GO59GT will permit the observations to continue until 2007.

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