Brightness of the Main Rings of Saturn from High Solar Elevation angles to Equinox

Details Brightness of the Main Rings of Saturn from High Solar Elevation angles to Equinox Brightness of the Main Rings of Saturn from High Solar Elevation angles to Equinox

Dec 2009

adsabs.harvard.edu/cgi-bin/nph-data_query?bibcode=2009agufm.p51b1134f&link_type=abstract

American Geophysical Union, Fall Meeting 2009, abstract #P51B-1134

Physics

[6265] Planetary Sciences: Solar System Objects / Planetary Rings, [6275] Planetary Sciences: Solar System Objects / Saturn

Scientific paper

Through the Composite Infrared Spectrometer (CIRS) on board Cassini, which has been in orbit around Saturn for almost five years, the temperature of Saturn's main rings (A, B and C) has been derived in a wide variety of geometries while the solar elevation angle, B', varied from near -24° to 0° (Equinox). Early ground-based and spacecraft observations suggested that the temperature of the rings varied with B' and the CIRS data has confirmed this variation. Still, an unresolved issue in fully explaining this variation relates to how the ring particles are organized and whether even a simple mono-layer or multi-layer approximation describes this best. We present an analysis of the temperature variation of the main rings of Saturn using CIRS data at low (α≤30°) and high (α≥120°) phase angles in particular regions of each ring with a radial extent ≤5000 km on their lit and unlit sides, where the observed temperature variations are 29 K to 38 K, 22 K to 34 K and 18 K to 23 K (A, B and C respectively). In order to explain these variations we apply a model based on the well known Froidevaux monolayer approximation with a modified shadowing function that accounts phase angle variations. Our model considers that every particle of the ring behaves as a black body and warms up due to the direct energy coming from the Sun and that is reflected on the atmosphere of Saturn and on the surfaces of the neighboring particles. The thermal energy input from Saturn and their neighbors as well.

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