Comparative Structure of Saturn's Rings from Cassini Radio Occultation Observations

Details Comparative Structure of Saturn's Rings from Cassini Radio Occultation Observations Comparative Structure of Saturn's Rings from Cassini Radio Occultation Observations

Oct 2007

adsabs.harvard.edu/cgi-bin/nph-data_query?bibcode=2007dps....39.0702m&link_type=abstract

American Astronomical Society, DPS meeting #39, #7.02; Bulletin of the American Astronomical Society, Vol. 39, p.419

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Radio occultations of Saturn's rings during the Cassini prime mission fall into three main groups, depending on the rings opening angle B. The first is a set of eight diametric occultations completed early in the mission (March-September/2005) when |B| was relatively large (19.5 to 23.5°). They permitted multiple-longitude profiling of relatively optically thick ring features, revealing detailed structure of enigmatic Ring B. The second is to be completed late in the mission when the rings are relatively closed (|B| < 10°). They will provide enhanced sensitivity to tenuous ring material, hence complementary information about small optical depth structure. Bridging the two groups is a third composed of two specially designed occultations recently completed (May-June/2007). They capture the intermediate range |B| 15°. Because the rings were still reasonably open, much of the structure was profiled. The different occultation geometry from the diametric group provided enhanced sensitivity to bending waves and other inclined features. We comparatively consider variability (or lack of) of observed ring structure with B and longitude. The variability when present can be true (dynamically forced features) or apparent (azimuthal asymmetry due to preferentially aligned gravitational wakes). The multiple-longitude coverage provides rich characterization of the true variability, including remarkable variations in the morphology of gap-embedded ringlets in Ring C, clear variations in the width of gaps in the Cassini Division, wavelike features in Ring C (the "Rosen Waves"), classical satellite wake profiles due to Pan, in addition to many density and few bending waves. For the apparent asymmetry, observed optical depth variations with B, viewing geometry, and wavelength constrain physical properties of the rings microstructure (particle sizes, particle-cluster sizes and orientation, spatial cluster density, vertical ring profile and physical thickness, ...). Complementary information about the microstructure is provided by observations of the near-forward scattered signal.

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