The Infrared Spectrum of Neptune at 3.5-4.1 microns: Search for H3+ and evidence for meteorological variations

Details The Infrared Spectrum of Neptune at 3.5-4.1 microns: Search for H3+ and evidence for meteorological variations The Infrared Spectrum of Neptune at 3.5-4.1 microns: Search for H3+ and evidence for meteorological variations

Apr 2003

adsabs.harvard.edu/cgi-bin/nph-data_query?bibcode=2003eaeja.....2140f&link_type=abstract

EGS - AGU - EUG Joint Assembly, Abstracts from the meeting held in Nice, France, 6 - 11 April 2003, abstract #2140

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The near-infrared spectrum of Neptune was recorded in August 2002, in two spectral windows, 3.5-3.75 microns and 3.9-4.1 microns, with a resolving power of 1200, using the ISAAC imaging spectrometer at the 8-m UT1 (ANTU) of the Very Large Telescope (European Southern Observatory) in Cerro Paranal (Chile). The purpose of the observation was a search for H3+ which was not detected. An upper limit of the H3+ column density will be given and implications will be discussed. The flux of Neptune, however, was detected in both windows, at a level about 3 times higher than at the time of its first detection by the ISO satellite in May 1997 (Encrenaz et al., A&A, 362, 1174, 2000). The spectrum shows strong CH4 absorption bands which can be fitted in a multi-layer model assuming that the solar light is reflected above the condensation level of methane. This observation suggests that important meteorological variations have take place between 1997 and 2002. This interpretation is also confirmed by an image of Neptune in the K-band (2.2 microns, a spectral region of strong methane absorption) which shows two parallel belts at mid-latitudes.

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