Saturn's Stratospheric Acetylene And Ethane Emission

Astronomy and Astrophysics – Astronomy

Scientific paper

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Scientific paper

Hydrocarbons in the upper atmosphere of Saturn are known, from Voyager and early Cassini results, to vary in emission intensity with latitude. Of particular interest is the marked increase in temperature and hydrocarbon line intensity near the South Pole (Greathouse et al. 2005, Orton and Yanamandra-Fisher, 2005, Flasar et al. 2005). Latitudinal variations in hydrocarbon abundances can be determined from measurements of hydrocarbon emission lines using temperatures derived from Cassini’s Composite InfRared Spectrometer (CIRS). Latitudinal, temporal, and vertical variations of stratospheric hydrocarbons provide constraints on dynamics, seasonal climate models, and photochemical models.
In an effort to monitor temporal and latitudinal variations of hydrocarbons in Saturn’s southern hemisphere we are conducting a ground-based campaign using Celeste, an infrared (5-25 μm) high-resolution (<0.1 cm-1) cryogenic grating spectrometer. From 2005 to 2007, we have been mapping lines of ethane and acetylene at the McMath-Pierce telescope at Kitt Peak, AZ and the NASA Infrared Telescope Facility at Mauna Kea, HI. These observations are being used to infer molecular abundances for each species in the 1-10 mbar region across the southern hemisphere of Saturn. Updated results from these observations will be presented.
This research was supported by a NASA Postdoctoral Program Fellowship appointment conducted at the Goddard Space Flight Center.
References:
Flasar et al., (2005) Science 307, 1247.
Greathouse et al., (2005) Icarus 177, 18
Orton and Yanamandra-Fisher, (2005) Science 307, 696.

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