Opposition surge and the physical nature of C ring particles

Details Opposition surge and the physical nature of C ring particles Opposition surge and the physical nature of C ring particles

Dec 2006

adsabs.harvard.edu/cgi-bin/nph-data_query?bibcode=2006agufm.p34a..03a&link_type=abstract

American Geophysical Union, Fall Meeting 2006, abstract #P34A-03

Physics

5759 Rings And Dust, 6275 Saturn

Scientific paper

We analyze data of Saturn's main rings that were obtained by the Cassini Composite Infrared Spectrometer (CIRS) in 2004 and 2005. Our goal is to benefit from the high spatial resolution and the various viewing geometries offered by the mid-IR interferometer (FP3 channel, 600 cm-1-1100 cm-1) to study the infrared visibility of various substructures in the main rings. Using the CIRS FP3 1x10 array of detectors allows better spatial resolution of the local temperature brightness variations and therefore the ability to sense finer structures such as plateaus in the C ring. Under favorable conditions, both brightness temperature and filling factor values of a region can be derived from a direct fit of the radiance curve. Alternatively, the normal optical depth value (from the {Voyager } PPS data) can be used, assuming a simple thermal model to constrain the filling factor. In particular, plateaus and ringlets in the C ring and Cassini division were resolved and a first attempt to derive their characteristic phase curve is presented. In general, a decrease of the emitted radiance with increasing phase angle is observed. Temperature versus phase curves were derived for various location in the C ring. The data suggest a non-linear enhancement of the temperature near 0° phase over the Plateau regions. Comparing phase curves against a classical many-particle-thick model may allow us to constrain the volume density, optical thickness and geometric albedo of the region considered. Our preliminary results will be presented. This work was performed at NASA-JPL under an NRC grant.

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