Search Publications
Limits to the abundance of surface CO2 ice on Titan
Coustenis, A.; Dumas, C.; Hartung, M. +1 more
In the context of the Cassini/Huygens mission, we performed supporting ground-based observations to complement the results from the NASA/ESA/ASI space mission to the Saturnian system with particular focus on Titan. On the nights of 18 and 19 December 2004, we conducted adaptive optics observations with VLT/NACO to search for and map the distributi…
Radiative heating predictions for Huygens entry
Magin, T. E.; Caillault, L.; Bourdon, A. +2 more
Radiative heat flux predictions for the Huygens probe entry into Titan's atmosphere are presented in this paper. Radiative heating was computed with the radiation code SPECAIR, assuming a Boltzmann distribution of the excited electronic levels at a characteristic temperature taken as the vibrational temperature of the gas. CN violet is found to be…
High-resolution infrared spectroscopy of ethane in Titan's stratosphere in the Huygens epoch
Sonnabend, G.; Kostiuk, T.; Schieder, R. +7 more
High-resolution infrared spectroscopy of ethane (C2H6) emission features formed in the stratosphere of Titan was collected on disc center at 11.74 µm wavelength (851 cm-1) on 15 January 2005 UT. The observations were obtained at the Subaru 8.2 m telescope of the National Astronomical Observatory of Japan on M…
Determination of local surface properties using Mars Express bistatic radar
Tyler, G. Leonard; Pätzold, Martin; Häusler, Bernd +1 more
Dual-frequency bistatic radar experiments were conducted with Mars Express at a rate of one to two per month during 2005. Each observation provided power measurements of orthogonally polarized surface echoes at one specular point; the ratio of these components yielded values of the dielectric constant in the range 2.0 < $\varepsilon$ < 4.0. …
Application of an orbital radar sounder model to detecting Martian polar subsurface features
Farrell, William M.; Xu, Yanbin; Cummer, Steven A.
A model to simulate the complete planetary orbital radar sounder problem is presented in this paper. The subsurface features and the ionosphere will not only bring ambiguity to the collected radar sounder data, but also critically affect instrument capabilities. These environmental uncertainties generate a compelling need for meaningful quantitati…
Huygens entry emission: Observation campaign, results, and lessons learned
de Pater, Imke; Lorenz, Ralph D.; Lemmon, Mark T. +8 more
An attempt was made to observe from Earth the emission from the shock layer and ``meteor trail'' formed during the Huygens probe's hypersonic entry into Titan's atmosphere. Although many observations were wiped out by weather or in-orbit failure, two observations constrain the emission from the entry. Several important lessons for future observati…
A new method to investigate hyperspectral image cubes: An application of the wavelet transform
Gendrin, Aline; Bibring, Jean-Pierre; Langevin, Yves +1 more
Data analysis of the Observatoire pour la Minéralogie, l'Eau, les Glaces, et l'Activité (OMEGA), the imaging spectrometer aboard Mars Express, necessitates the use of techniques able to extract the relevant information of large data sets. Numerous efficient algorithms have already been developed for similar purposes for terrestrial imaging spectro…