Saturn's Thermal Emission at 2-cm Wavelength and Implications for Atmospheric Composition and Dynamics

Details Saturn's Thermal Emission at 2-cm Wavelength and Implications for Atmospheric Composition and Dynamics Saturn's Thermal Emission at 2-cm Wavelength and Implications for Atmospheric Composition and Dynamics

Dec 2008

adsabs.harvard.edu/cgi-bin/nph-data_query?bibcode=2008agufm.p11b1278j&link_type=abstract

American Geophysical Union, Fall Meeting 2008, abstract #P11B-1278

Physics

0343 Planetary Atmospheres (5210, 5405, 5704), 3346 Planetary Meteorology (5445, 5739), 5704 Atmospheres (0343, 1060), 5754 Polar Regions, 6969 Remote Sensing

Scientific paper

The thermal emission from Saturn's atmosphere has been mapped using the passive radiometer of the Cassini RADAR instrument. The radiometer operates at a frequency of 13.78 GHz, or 2.18-cm wavelength, and uses the spacecraft's main communication antenna to form a beam of 0.36º width at half power. Images of absolute brightness at normal incidence were constructed using data obtained from raster scans during close periapsis passes in September, 2005, and February, 2008. In 2005 most of the equatorial region was mapped within latitudes +/- 60 degrees, while the polar regions were observed in 2008. The sensitivity was about 0.1 K and the best spatial resolution in the images is about 500 km, providing more than an order of magnitude improvement in both parameters over all previous microwave observations of Saturn. At 2-cm wavelength the radiometric weighting function lies at altitudes almost entirely within the ammonia saturation region, and the brightness temperature is therefore primarily sensitive to the cloud-level ammonia concentration. A variety of heretofore-unseen structure attributable to cloud-level ammonia variations was seen and implications for atmospheric circulations will be presented.

Affiliated with

Also associated with

No associations

Rating

Saturn's Thermal Emission at 2-cm Wavelength and Implications for Atmospheric Composition and Dynamics does not yet have a rating. At this time, there are no reviews or comments for this scientific paper.

If you have personal experience with Saturn's Thermal Emission at 2-cm Wavelength and Implications for Atmospheric Composition and Dynamics, we encourage you to share that experience with our LandOfFree.com community. Your opinion is very important and Saturn's Thermal Emission at 2-cm Wavelength and Implications for Atmospheric Composition and Dynamics will most certainly appreciate the feedback.

Rate now

Comments { 0 }

Profile ID: LFWR-SCP-O-1234587