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Equatorially confined warm trapped ions at around 100 eV near the plasmapause
Yamauchi, M.; Dandouras, I.; Rème, H. +1 more
Near the equatorial plasmapause at around 4-5 Earth radius (RE) geocentric distance, pancake distributed tens of eV ions are sometimes found, as previously reported by Olsen et al. (1987). Cluster CIS data during perigee traversals in 2001-2002 (nearly 200 traversals) revealed new features of these equatorially-trapped warm ions. (1) Th…
Wind-induced atmospheric escape: Titan
Johnson, R. E.; Hartle, R. E.; Simpson, D. G. +2 more
Rapid thermospheric flows can significantly enhance the atmospheric loss rates and structures of atmospheric coronae of planetary bodies. Using descriptions of atmospheric escape based on molecular kinetic models, we show that such flows at the exobase of Titan could significantly increase the calculated constituent thermal and nonthermal escape r…
Optical reflectivity of solid and liquid methane: Application to spectroscopy of Titan's hydrocarbon lakes
Adams, Kimberly A.; Jacobsen, Steven D.; Liu, Zhenxian +3 more
Reflectance spectroscopy of outer solar system bodies provides direct observations for interpreting their surface compositions. At Titan, the Cassini spacecraft revealed dark patches in the surface reflectance at 2 and 5 µm, interpreted as hydrocarbon lakes forming seasonally through a methane cycle. Whereas the composition of planetary mate…
Unusually short period in electrons at Saturn
Krupp, N.; Krimigis, S. M.; Mitchell, D. G. +1 more
When subject to Lomb periodogram analyses, fluxes of energetic electrons (27-496 keV) observed during the first 245 days of 2012 exhibit both mono and dual periods depending on energy. For E < 100 keV electrons, dual periods at 9.95 hours and 10.64 hours are evident, with the strongest signal at the shortest period. For higher energy electrons,…
Visible and thermal infrared observations of the Martian surface during three Phobos shadow transits
Christensen, Philip R.; Piqueux, Sylvain
We present visible and thermal infrared observations of the Martian surface acquired during three Phobos transits. Observations show a decrease of up to ∼20% of the reflected solar energy, consistent with the fraction of the Sun disk eclipsed by Phobos, and no measurable surface cooling. Thermal modeling indicates that the top millimeter of the re…