Altitude and temperature of Saturn’s aurora from VIMS observations

Details Altitude and temperature of Saturn’s aurora from VIMS observations Altitude and temperature of Saturn’s aurora from VIMS observations

Dec 2009

adsabs.harvard.edu/cgi-bin/nph-data_query?bibcode=2009agufm.p33b1286a&link_type=abstract

American Geophysical Union, Fall Meeting 2009, abstract #P33B-1286

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[0310] Atmospheric Composition And Structure / Airglow And Aurora, [0343] Atmospheric Composition And Structure / Planetary Atmospheres

Scientific paper

We present an estimate of the average temperature and altitude of the north polar aurora on Saturn using H3+ infrared (IR) observations from the image spectrometer VIMS onboard Cassini. Our analysis is based on the observations realized during S42 session in July 2008. On Saturn, as on other hydrogen-rich giant planets, a percentage of the ionized particles accelerated through the magnetic field impinge on the neutral hydrogen atmosphere, yielding H3+ molecules. H3+ has a multitude of emission bands in the IR between 1 and 5 microns. We take advantage of the band between 3 and 4 microns, where atmospheric absorption by methane is strong and thus atmospheric contamination is minimized. The average temperature of the main oval was estimated by comparing H3+ IR emission intensities measured by VIMS with a simulation of the H3+ emission as a function vibrational temperature. The altitude of the main structure has been derived by a collection of procedures, based on the SPICE observation geometries, and implemented at IFSI-INAF of Rome, Italy. Preliminary results indicate the auroral plane at approximately 800 km, while peaks in the H3+ infrared emissions seem to agree with simulations at 500 K vibrational temperature.

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