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Organic sedimentary deposits in Titan's dry lakebeds: Probable evaporite
Nicholson, Philip D.; Sotin, Christophe; Barnes, Jason W. +14 more
We report the discovery of organic sedimentary deposits at the bottom of dry lakebeds near Titan's north pole in observations from the Cassini Visual and Infrared Mapping Spectrometer (VIMS). We show evidence that the deposits are evaporitic, making Titan just the third known planetary body with evaporitic processes after Earth and Mars, and is th…
Methane on Uranus: The case for a compact CH 4 cloud layer at low latitudes and a severe CH 4 depletion at high-latitudes based on re-analysis of Voyager occultation measurements and STIS spectroscopy
Sromovsky, L. A.; Fry, P. M.; Kim, J. H.
Lindal et al. (Lindal, G.F., Lyons, J.R., Sweetnam, D.N., Eshleman, V.R., Hinson, D.P. [1987]. J. Geophys. Res. 92 (11), 14987-15001) presented a range of temperature and methane profiles for Uranus that were consistent with 1986 Voyager radio occultation measurements of refractivity versus altitude. A localized refractivity slope variation near 1…
Saturn's zonal wind profile in 2004-2009 from Cassini ISS images and its long-term variability
Hueso, R.; Sánchez-Lavega, A.; García-Melendo, E. +1 more
Five years of Cassini Imaging Science Subsystem images, from 2004 to 2009, are analyzed in this work to retrieve global zonal wind profiles of Saturn's northern and southern hemispheres in the methane absorbing bands at 890 and 727 nm and in their respective adjacent continuum wavelengths of 939 and 752 nm. A complete view of Saturn's global circu…
Stratigraphy, mineralogy, and origin of layered deposits inside Terby crater, Mars
Mangold, N.; Le Mouélic, S.; Bibring, J. -P. +13 more
The 174 km diameter Terby impact crater (28.0°S-74.1°E) located on the northern rim of the Hellas basin displays anomalous inner morphology, including a flat floor and light-toned layered deposits. An analysis of these deposits was performed using multiple datasets from Mars Global Surveyor, Mars Odyssey, Mars Express and Mars Reconnaissance Orbit…
Titan's aerosol and stratospheric ice opacities between 18 and 500 µm: Vertical and spectral characteristics from Cassini CIRS
Anderson, Carrie M.; Samuelson, Robert E.
Vertical distributions and spectral characteristics of Titan's photochemical aerosol and stratospheric ices are determined between 20 and 560 cm -1 (500-18 µm) from the Cassini Composite Infrared Spectrometer (CIRS). Results are obtained for latitudes of 15°N, 15°S, and 58°S, where accurate temperature profiles can be independentl…
Saturn's tropospheric composition and clouds from Cassini/VIMS 4.6-5.1 µm nightside spectroscopy
Fletcher, Leigh N.; Baines, Kevin H.; Irwin, Patrick G. J. +5 more
The latitudinal variation of Saturn's tropospheric composition (NH 3, PH 3 and AsH 3) and aerosol properties (cloud altitudes and opacities) are derived from Cassini/VIMS 4.6-5.1 µm thermal emission spectroscopy on the planet's nightside (April 22, 2006). The gaseous and aerosol distributions are used to trac…
Rosetta-Alice observations of exospheric hydrogen and oxygen on Mars
Parker, Joel Wm.; Bertaux, Jean-Loup; Weaver, Harold A. +9 more
The European Space Agency's Rosetta spacecraft, en route to a 2014 encounter with comet 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko, made a gravity assist swing-by of Mars on 25 February 2007, closest approach being at 01:54 UT. The Alice instrument on board Rosetta, a lightweight far-ultraviolet imaging spectrograph optimized for in situ cometary spectroscopy in t…
Temporal variations of Titan’s middle-atmospheric temperatures from 2004 to 2009 observed by Cassini/CIRS
Nixon, Conor A.; Achterberg, Richard K.; Michael Flasar, F. +2 more
We use five and one-half years of limb- and nadir-viewing temperature mapping observations by the Composite Infrared Radiometer-Spectrometer (CIRS) on the Cassini Saturn orbiter, taken between July 2004 and December 2009 ( LS from 293° to 4°; northern mid-winter to just after northern spring equinox), to monitor temperature changes in t…
Hapke modeling of Rhea surface properties through Cassini-VIMS spectra
Brown, R. H.; Buratti, B. J.; Clark, R. N. +8 more
The surface properties of the icy bodies in the saturnian system have been investigated by means of the Cassini-VIMS (Visual Infrared Mapping Spectrometer) hyperspectral imager which operates in the 0.35-5.1 µm wavelength range. In particular, we have analyzed 111 full disk hyperspectral images of Rhea ranging in solar phase between 0.08° an…
The 1.10- and 1.18-µm nightside windows of Venus observed by SPICAV-IR aboard Venus Express
Bertaux, Jean-Loup; Korablev, Oleg; Bézard, Bruno +2 more
Observations of the 1.10- and 1.18-µm nightside windows by the SPICAV-IR instrument aboard Venus Express were analyzed to characterize the various sources of gaseous opacity and determine the H 2O mole fraction in the lower atmosphere of Venus. We showed that the line profile model of Afanasenko and Rodin (Afanasenko, T.S., Rodin,…