A review of HST/FOS NUV spectra of Io obtained on 1994 and 1996

Details A review of HST/FOS NUV spectra of Io obtained on 1994 and 1996 A review of HST/FOS NUV spectra of Io obtained on 1994 and 1996

Sep 1999

adsabs.harvard.edu/cgi-bin/nph-data_query?bibcode=1999dps....31.7407j&link_type=abstract

American Astronomical Society, DPS meeting #31, #74.07

Astronomy and Astrophysics

Astronomy

Scientific paper

We present an overview of the analysis and detailed modeling of Hubble Space Telescope/Faint Object Spectrograph (HST/FOS) near ultraviolet reflectance spectra of Io obtained on June 1994 and October 1996. The observations record temporal changes in SO_2 abundance on Io's leading and trailing hemispheres, as well as over a 1.5 hour period initiated at eclipse egress. These variations include a dramatic change in the level of gas absorption and frost reflectance 1.3 hrs after eclipse egress, as well as significant differences between the leading and trailing hemispheres. As reported previously (Jessup et al. 1997), Io's albedo at east elongation was 20% darker than that observed at west elongation in 1994, but in 1996 the east elongation albedo was only 5% darker than at west elongation. Gas absorption at east elongation was greater than on the west during both the 1994 and 1996 observing campaigns. The relative differences in the gas absorption observed in these spectra are opposite to those observed by Trafton et al.(1996). We present SO and SO_2 column abundances fitted to each dataset based on an extensive exploratory study of the effects of volcanic SO and SO_2 output, atmospheric and volcanic temperature, and the degree to which any atmospheric SO or SO_2 component is confined or extended. The temperature dependence of the SO_2 absorption column is determined from high resolution laboratory data taken by Freeman et al. (1984) at 213 K and Smith et al. (1998) at 300 K. As reported previously (Jessup et al. 1998), the fits to several of the absorption features are improved when a column of SO is added to the model atmosphere. However, we cannot derive the temperature dependence of the SO absorption cross section from the available laboratory measurements. This prevents us from making absolute statements regarding the contribution of gaseous SO to Io's reflectance spectrum. The sensitivity of Io's reflectance spectrum to temperature requires that more high resolution data be taken of the SO and SO_2 absorption cross sections at low and high temperatures. This research has been funded by NASA Grant NGT5-50154

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