Search Publications
Spectroscopic classification of icy satellites of Saturn II: Identification of terrain units on Rhea
Stephan, K.; Capaccioni, F.; Cerroni, P. +4 more
Rhea is the second largest icy satellites of Saturn and it is mainly composed of water ice. Its surface is characterized by a leading hemisphere slightly brighter than the trailing side. The main goal of this work is to identify homogeneous compositional units on Rhea by applying the Spectral Angle Mapper (SAM) classification technique to Rhea’s h…
Conjugate observations of Saturn’s northern and southern H3+ aurorae
Baines, Kevin H.; O'Donoghue, James; Moore, Luke +7 more
We present an analysis of recent high spatial and spectral resolution ground-based infrared observations of H3+ obtained with the 10-m Keck II telescope in April 2011. We observed H3+ emission from Saturn’s northern and southern auroral regions, simultaneously, over the course of more than 2 h, obtaining spectral images along the central meridian …
Geologic map of the northern hemisphere of Vesta based on Dawn Framing Camera (FC) images
Russell, Christopher T.; Williams, David A.; Jaumann, Ralf +9 more
The Dawn Framing Camera (FC) has imaged the northern hemisphere of the Asteroid (4) Vesta at high spatial resolution and coverage. This study represents the first investigation of the overall geology of the northern hemisphere (22-90°N, quadrangles Av-1, 2, 3, 4 and 5) using these unique Dawn mission observations. We have compiled a morphologic ma…
Spatial and temporal dependence of the convective electric field in Saturn’s inner magnetosphere
Krupp, N.; Dougherty, M. K.; Roussos, E. +5 more
The recently established presence of a convective electric field in Saturn’s inner and middle magnetosphere, with an average pointing approximately towards midnight and an intensity less than 1 mV/m, is one of the most puzzling findings by the Cassini spacecraft. In order to better characterize the properties of this electric field, we augmented t…
In-flight calibration of the Dawn Framing Camera II: Flat fields and stray light correction
Mottola, S.; Matz, K. -D.; Schröder, S. E. +1 more
The NASA Dawn spacecraft acquired thousands of images of asteroid Vesta during its year-long orbital tour, and is now on its way to asteroid Ceres. A method for calibrating images acquired by the onboard Framing Camera was described by Schröder et al. (Schröder et al. [2013]. Icarus 226, 1304). However, their method is only valid for point sources…
A phenomenological model of Io's UV aurora based on HST/STIS observations
Saur, Joachim; Roth, Lorenz; Feldman, Paul D. +2 more
We have carried out a comprehensive analysis of a large set of spatially resolved observations of Io's OI 1304 Å, OI] 1356 Å, SI 1479 Å and SI] 1900 Å aurora taken by the Space Telescope Imaging Spectrograph (STIS) of the Hubble Space Telescope (HST) between 1997 and 2001. We find that the variability of the observed morphologies can be solely exp…
The lens feature on the inner saturnian satellites
Krupp, N.; Roussos, E.; Hendrix, A. R. +12 more
We have modeled an electron precipitation pattern expected on Mimas, Tethys, and Dione, using two different approaches. In the first approach, we adapt a previously developed model to compute an integrated energy flux into the surfaces of Mimas, Tethys, and Dione. This is a guiding-center, bounce-averaged model. In the second approach, we track in…
Non-steady state tidal heating of Enceladus
Kurita, K.; Hussmann, H.; Shoji, D. +1 more
Enceladus is one of the most geologically active bodies in the Solar System. The satellite's diverse surface suggests that Enceladus was subject to past episodic heating. It is largely probable that the activity of Enceladus is not in a steady state. In order to analyze the non-steady state heating, thermal and orbital coupled calculation is neede…
Noncircular features in Saturn's rings I: The edge of the B ring
Nicholson, Philip D.; French, Richard G.; Hedman, Matthew M. +2 more
A comprehensive investigation of all available radio and stellar occultation data for the outer edge of Saturn's B ring, spanning the period 1980-2010, confirms that the m = 2 distortion due to the strong Mimas 2:1 inner Lindblad resonance circulates slowly relative to Mimas in a prograde direction, with a frequency ΩL = 0.1819° d-…
Titan's surface composition and atmospheric transmission with solar occultation measurements by Cassini VIMS
Sotin, Christophe; McCord, Thomas B.; Hayne, Paul O.
Solar occultation measurements by the Cassini Visual and Infrared Mapping Spectrometer (VIMS) reveal the near-infrared transmission of Titan's atmosphere down to an altitude of ∼40 km. By combining these observations with VIMS reflectance measurements of Titan's surface and knowledge of haze and gas opacity profiles from the Huygens probe, we cons…