Volcanism on Io: The Galileo NIMS Io Thermal Emission Database (NITED)

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[5480] Planetary Sciences: Solid Surface Planets / Volcanism, [6219] Planetary Sciences: Solar System Objects / Io, [6297] Planetary Sciences: Solar System Objects / Instruments And Techniques, [8450] Volcanology / Planetary Volcanism

Scientific paper

In order to determine the magnitude of thermal emission from Io's volcanoes and variability with time at local, regional and global scales, we have calculated the 4.7 or 5 μm radiant flux for every hot spot in every Galileo Near Infrared Mapping Spectrometer (NIMS) observation obtained during the Galileo mission between June 1996 and October 2001. The resulting database contains over 1000 measurements of radiant flux, corrected for emission angle, range to target, and, where necessary, incident sunlight. Io's volcanoes produce the most voluminous and most powerful eruptions in the Solar System [1] and NIMS was the ideal instrument for measuring thermal emission from these volcanoes (see [1, 2]). NIMS covered the infrared from 0.7 to 5.2 μm, so measurement of hot spot thermal emission at ~5 μm was possible even in daytime observations. As part of a campaign to quantify magnitude and variability of volcanic thermal emission [1, 3-5] we examined the entire NIMS dataset (196 observations). The resulting NIMS Io Thermal Emission Database (NITED) allows the charting of 5-μm thermal emission at individual volcanoes, identifying individual eruption episodes, and enabling the comparison of activity at different hot spots [e.g., 6] and different regions of Io. Some ionian hot spots were detected only once or twice by NIMS (e.g., Ah Peku Patera, seen during I32), but most were detected many times (e.g., Culann, Tupan and Zamama, [6]). For example, the database contains over 40 observations of Loki Patera (some at high emission angle, and two partial observations). There are 55 observations of Pele. The 27 nighttime observations of Pele show a remarkably steady 5-μm radiant flux of 35 ± 12 GW/μm. There are 34 observations of Pillan, which erupted violently in 1997. Although in many observations low spatial resolution makes it difficult to separate hot spot pairs such as Susanoo Patera and Mulungu Patera; Tawhaki Patera and Hi'iaka Patera; and Janus Patera and Kanehekili, comparison with Galileo SSI camera data sometimes allows the active partner to be identified. The inability to resolve individual hot spots does not affect calculations of regional or hemispherical thermal emission and variability. Having quantified 5-μm radiant flux using NIMS data, we are extending analysis to determine total thermal emission [6] and incorporating other data to complete the database of thermal emission and variability [e.g., 3-5]. This work was conducted at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory, California Institute of Technology, under contract with NASA, and is supported by the NASA OPR Program. Copyright 2011 Caltech.

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