Search Publications
Evolution of stratospheric chemistry in the Saturn storm beacon region
Fletcher, Leigh N.; Irwin, Patrick G. J.; Moses, Julianne I. +4 more
The giant northern-hemisphere storm that erupted on Saturn in December 2010 triggered significant changes in stratospheric temperatures and species abundances that persisted for more than a year after the original outburst. The stratospheric regions affected by the storm have been nicknamed "beacons" due to their prominent infrared-emission signat…
Mineralogy, morphology and stratigraphy of the light-toned interior layered deposits at Juventae Chasma
Flahaut, Jessica; Weitz, Catherine M.; Bishop, Janice L. +6 more
Juventae Chasma is a deep depression located north of Valles Marineris on Mars, with four bright mounds or light-toned interior layered deposits (ILDs) extending upwards from the Canyon floor. We present here the results of long-term imaging of Juventae Chasma including mounds A, B, C, and D using multiple datasets. Monohydrated sulfates (MHS) wer…
Linking Europa's plume activity to tides, tectonics, and liquid water
Roth, Lorenz; Rhoden, Alyssa Rose; Retherford, Kurt +1 more
Much of the geologic activity preserved on Europa's icy surface has been attributed to tidal deformation, mainly due to Europa's eccentric orbit. Although the surface is geologically young (30-80 Myr), there is little information as to whether tidally-driven surface processes are ongoing. However, a recent detection of water vapor near Europa's so…
Cassini INMS measurements of Enceladus plume density
McNutt, R. L.; Waite, J. H.; Teolis, B. D. +5 more
During six encounters between 2008 and 2013, the Cassini Ion and Neutral Mass Spectrometer (INMS) made in situ measurements deep within the Enceladus plumes. Throughout each encounter, those measurements contained density variations that reflected the nature of the source, particularly of the high-velocity jets. Since the dominant constituent of t…
Evidence for crater ejecta on Venus tessera terrain from Earth-based radar images
Campbell, Donald B.; Nolan, Michael C.; Campbell, Bruce A. +3 more
We combine Earth-based radar maps of Venus from the 1988 and 2012 inferior conjunctions, which had similar viewing geometries. Processing of both datasets with better image focusing and co-registration techniques, and summing over multiple looks, yields maps with 1-2 km spatial resolution and improved signal to noise ratio, especially in the weake…
Impact craters: An ice study on Rhea
White, Oliver L.; Cruikshank, Dale P.; Dalle Ore, Cristina M. +2 more
The goal of this project is to study the properties of H2O ice in the environment of the Saturn satellites and in particular to measure the relative amounts of crystalline and amorphous H2O ice in and around two craters on Rhea. The craters are remnants of cataclysmic events that, by raising the local temperature, melted the …
Spatially resolved HST/STIS observations of Io's dayside equatorial atmosphere
Spencer, John R.; Jessup, Kandis Lea
We report on an investigation of the spatial distribution of Io's atmosphere, and its diurnal variability, using Hubble's Space Telescope Imaging Spectrograph (HST/STIS). From December 2010 to January 2012, we obtained spatially resolved limb-to-limb 2100-3100 Å spectra at low latitudes (<30°), with the STIS 0.1″ slit. Spectra taken at two cent…
Photometric properties of Ceres from telescopic observations using Dawn Framing Camera color filters
Nathues, Andreas; Li, Jian-Yang; Reddy, Vishnu +7 more
The dwarf planet Ceres is likely differentiated similar to the terrestrial planets but with a water/ice dominated mantle and an aqueously altered crust. Detailed modeling of Ceres' phase function has never been performed to understand its surface properties. The Dawn spacecraft began orbital science operations at the dwarf planet in April 2015. We…
Instantaneous three-dimensional thermal structure of the South Polar Vortex of Venus
Hueso, R.; Sánchez-Lavega, A.; García Muñoz, A. +1 more
The Venus thermal radiation spectrum exhibits the signature of CO2 absorption bands. By means of inversion techniques, those bands enable the retrieval of atmospheric temperature profiles. We have analyzed VIRTIS-M-IR night-side data obtaining high-resolution thermal maps of the Venus south polar region between 55 and 85 km altitudes. T…
Ionization balance in Titan's nightside ionosphere
Coates, A. J.; Wahlund, J. -E.; Edberg, N. J. T. +10 more
Based on a multi-instrumental Cassini dataset we make model versus observation comparisons of plasma number densities, nP = (nenI)1/2 (ne and nI being the electron number density and total positive ion number density, respectively) and short-lived ion number densities (N+…