First Vertical Ion Density Profile in Jupiter's Auroral Atmosphere: Direct Observations using the Keck II Telescope

Details First Vertical Ion Density Profile in Jupiter's Auroral Atmosphere: Direct Observations using the Keck II Telescope First Vertical Ion Density Profile in Jupiter's Auroral Atmosphere: Direct Observations using the Keck II Telescope

Apr 2008

adsabs.harvard.edu/cgi-bin/nph-data_query?bibcode=2008apj...677..790l&link_type=abstract

The Astrophysical Journal, Volume 677, Issue 1, pp. 790-797.

Astronomy and Astrophysics

Astronomy

11

Infrared: Solar System, Methods: Data Analysis, Planets And Satellites: Individual: Jupiter, Techniques: Spectroscopic

Scientific paper

We present the first vertical ion density profiles of Jupiter's upper atmosphere derived directly from ground-based observations. Observations of infrared H+3 emissions in Jupiter's auroral/polar regions were collected by the high-resolution spectrometer NIRSPEC on the Keck II telescope. We have calculated vertical density profiles for a latitude in the southern auroral region using the measured column densities and a shell model of the Jovian ionospheric H+3 emission. We compare our resultant profiles to those generated by a recent one-dimensional model in both local thermodynamic equilibrium (LTE) and non-LTE conditions. We find good agreement with the model profiles up to 1800 km. Above that, however, our measurements show that more H+3 is produced than is predicted by the model. Our observational method is a new tool for probing Jupiter's upper atmosphere from Earth and can possibly be extended to the study of other gas giant planets.

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