Constraints on Saturn's G Ring from the Voyager 2 Radio Astronomy Instrument

Details Constraints on Saturn's G Ring from the Voyager 2 Radio Astronomy Instrument Constraints on Saturn's G Ring from the Voyager 2 Radio Astronomy Instrument

Apr 1998

adsabs.harvard.edu/cgi-bin/nph-data_query?bibcode=1998icar..132..311m&link_type=abstract

Icarus, Volume 132, Issue 2, pp. 311-320.

Astronomy and Astrophysics

Astronomy

6

Scientific paper

We have reanalyzed the data acquired by the planetary radio astronomy (PRA) experiment during the passage of Voyager 2 through the outer part of Saturn's G ring, originally published by Aubier et al. (1983. Geophys. Res. Lett. 10, 5-8). This study closely parallels the reanalysis of the Voyager 1 PRA data during the E-ring passage (Meyer-Vernet et al. 1996. Icarus 123, 113-128). The instrument detected dust grain impacts on the spacecraft in a region of ~1000 km vertical extent around the ring plane with a maximum at ring plane crossing. The signal is mainly produced by grains of radius of a few micrometers. We find a size distribution less steep than the r^-6 law inferred for submicrometer grains by Showalter and Cuzzi (1993. Icarus 103, 124-143) from photometric data. These results can be reconciled if the slope of the size distribution flattens above 0.5 mu. Assuming a rough continuity between the distributions deduced from the two data sets and an r^-q law for the grains detected by PRA, we infer that the differential power law index q < 3.5 for grain radii between about a half micrometer and a few micrometers. From the observed vertical profile, we deduce an effective ring vertical thickness H ~ 1200_solar(q - 1) km. When q varies in the range 3.5-2, H varies in the range 500-1200 km and the geometric cross section per unit area is a few times 10^-6.

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