Saturn's aurora as viewed by Cassini VIMS

Details Saturn's aurora as viewed by Cassini VIMS Saturn's aurora as viewed by Cassini VIMS

Dec 2011

adsabs.harvard.edu/cgi-bin/nph-data_query?bibcode=2011agufm.p11h..01m&link_type=abstract

American Geophysical Union, Fall Meeting 2011, abstract #P11H-01

Physics

[5706] Planetary Sciences: Fluid Planets / Aurorae, [5719] Planetary Sciences: Fluid Planets / Interactions With Particles And Fields, [5729] Planetary Sciences: Fluid Planets / Ionospheres, [6275] Planetary Sciences: Solar System Objects / Saturn

Scientific paper

The stunning views of the kronian aurora captured by the Visual and Infrared Imaging Spectrograph (VIMS) onboard the Cassini spacecraft continues to provide crucial observations of the fervent interaction between the upper atmosphere and the magnetosphere of Saturn. Here, we present recent findings of VIMS auroral research, which includes both statistical studies and case studies of auroral events and morphology. In addition to stand-alone observations, there is a small subset of VIMS observations during which UVIS was also acquiring data. These observations enable the comparison between observations of H, H2 in the ultraviolet and H3+ in the infrared that are both spatially overlapping and temporally simultaneous. Whilst emission tends to coincide for these three species on the main oval, there are significant differences both pole-ward and equator-ward, such that observations of H and H2 is generally a poor proxy for emissions of H3+. VIMS is sensitive to infrared thermal emission from the H3+ molecule, which is formed very efficiently via the ionisation of H2. Therefore, the morphology of H3+ emission becomes a tracer of energy injected into the upper atmosphere - the most striking of which is auroral particle precipitation.

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