Physics
Scientific paper
Sep 1990
adsabs.harvard.edu/cgi-bin/nph-data_query?bibcode=1990georl..17.1693s&link_type=abstract
Geophysical Research Letters (ISSN 0094-8276), vol. 17, Sept. 1990, p. 1693-1696.
Physics
22
Airglow, Auroras, Ion Emission, Neptune (Planet), Ultraviolet Spectrometers, Voyager Project, Brightness Distribution, Photoelectrons, Planetary Magnetospheres, Triton, Ultraviolet Spectra
Scientific paper
The latitude-longitude distribution of emissions detected by the Voyager ultraviolet spectrometer on the dark hemisphere of Neptune have been examined. The emissions have two significant geographic features: (1) a broad peak near longitude 60 deg W that extends rather uniformly over the entire range of observed latitudes (55 deg S to 50 deg N); and (2) a brighter, narrower peak near the south pole and 240 deg W. The first peak is interpreted as due to excitation of the night side atmosphere by photoelectrons from the magnetically conjugate, sunlit atmosphere. The second peak can plausibly be attributed to a southern aurora; the field geometry would then seem to require a conjugate (and probably brighter) northern aurora that escaped detection poleward of the latitude range sampled by the UVS data. The power for such an aurora could be extracted from Neptune's rotation by the injection of plasma at Triton's orbit at a rate dm/dt of about 1 kg/s.
Dessler A. J.
Herbert Fritz
Hill Thomas W.
Sandel Bill R.
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