Inversion of KAO Stellar Occultation Data for Pluto

Details Inversion of KAO Stellar Occultation Data for Pluto Inversion of KAO Stellar Occultation Data for Pluto

Sep 1996

adsabs.harvard.edu/cgi-bin/nph-data_query?bibcode=1996dps....28.0603a&link_type=abstract

American Astronomical Society, DPS meeting #28, #06.03; Bulletin of the American Astronomical Society, Vol. 28, p.1079

Astronomy and Astrophysics

Astronomy

Scientific paper

We have inverted the KAO light curve from the 1988 Pluto occultation (Elliot et al. 1989, Icarus 77, 148) to obtain temperature, pressure, and number density for the atmosphere, assuming no significant extinction. The initial conditions for the inversion were determined by a least squares fit to part of the light curve. We varied the amount of light curve used to establish the initial condition, with the remainder being used for the inversion. We also varied the background level and the full scale level used to normalize the light curve in order to test the sensitivity of the results to these parameters. The inversions were carried out from the end of the portion used to establish the initial condition to the midtime of the light curve, assuming that light received was refracted from only one limb. For each inversion, the cutoff point, which separates portion fitted for the initial condition from portion inverted in the light curve, was above the "kink" seen in the light curve. Resulting calculations for temperature gradients show no distinction between ingress and egress; the thermal gradients rise to approximately ten Kelvin per kilometer, agreeing with the gradient used by Hubbard, Yelle, and Lunine (1990, Icarus 84, 1), as the inversions reach 1200 kilometers. However, the rate at which the gradients rise to ten Kelvin per kilometer is a factor of four faster than models published by Strobel et al. (1996, Icarus 120, 266). The parameters for a Bates model (Stansberry et al. 1994, Icarus 111, 503) can be modified to produce temperature profiles similar to the output of the inversions. The atmospheric parameters at midtime of the light curve (when the inversions were ended) are: a radius of 1204 kilometers, a temperature of 85 Kelvin, a pressure of 0.57 \ mu bars, and a number density of 3.7 x 10(13) \ cm(-3) . This atmospheric level is above the putative deep troposphere (Stansberry et al. 1994). This research was supported in part by NASA grants NAGW-1494 (MIT) and NAG2-811 (Lowell).

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