Search Publications
Utility of laser altimeter and stereoscopic terrain models: Application to Martian craters
Hynek, Brian M.; Robbins, Stuart J.
The use of numerical datasets of the same type derived from remote sensing instruments is often treated as equivalent in value and utility, within the limits of their spatial resolution. Surface topography is a good example of this. We used gridded digital terrain models (DTMs) derived from both laser altimetry and stereo pairs as well as the orig…
Nighttime photochemical model and night airglow on Venus
Krasnopolsky, Vladimir A.
The photochemical model for the Venus nighttime atmosphere and night airglow (Krasnopolsky, 2010, Icarus 207, 17-27) has been revised to account for the SPICAV detection of the nighttime ozone layer and more detailed spectroscopy and morphology of the OH nightglow. Nighttime chemistry on Venus is induced by fluxes of O, N, H, and Cl with mean hemi…
Saturn's ULF wave foreshock boundary: Cassini observations
Dougherty, M. K.; Mazelle, C.; Bertucci, C. +2 more
Even though the solar wind is highly supersonic, intense ultra-low frequency (ULF) wave activity has been detected in regions just upstream of the bow shocks of magnetized planets. This feature was first observed ahead of the Earth's bow shock, and the corresponding region was called the ULF wave foreshock, which is embedded within the planet's fo…
Young viscous flows in the Lowell crater of Orientale basin, Moon: Impact melts or volcanic eruptions?
Srivastava, N.; Kumar, D.; Gupta, R. P.
Topographical, morphological and spectral reflectance studies have been carried out for a distinct resurface event inside Copernican aged Lowell crater (13.00°S 103.40°W), Orientale basin, using high resolution TC, MI-VIS, LROC-NAC, and M3 data from Kaguya, Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter (LRO) and Chandrayaan-1 missions. The resurfacing i…
Toroidal and poloidal magnetic fields at Venus. Venus Express observations
Fedorov, A.; Barabash, S.; Lundin, R. +5 more
Magnetic field and plasma measurements carried out onboard Venus Express during solar minimum conditions suggest the existence of two kinds of magnetic field configuration in the Venusian ionosphere. We interpret these as the manifestation of two different types of generation mechanisms for the induced magnetosphere. A different magnetic field top…
Solar wind reflection from the lunar surface: The view from far and near
Barabash, S.; Wurz, P.; McComas, D. J. +7 more
The Moon appears bright in the sky as a source of energetic neutral atoms (ENAs). These ENAs have recently been imaged over a broad energy range both from near the lunar surface, by India's Chandrayaan-1 mission (CH-1), and from a much more distant Earth orbit by NASA's Interstellar Boundary Explorer (IBEX) satellite. Both sets of observations hav…
ROSINA/DFMS capabilities to measure isotopic ratios in water at comet 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko
Altwegg, K.; Balsiger, H.; Berthelier, J. J. +7 more
The likelihood that comets may have delivered part of the water to Earth has been reinforced by the recent observation of the earth-like D/H ratio in Jupiter-family comet 103P/Hartley 2 by Hartogh et al. (2012). Prior to this observation, results from several Oort cloud comets indicated a factor of 2 enrichment of deuterium relative to the abundan…
Evidence of extensive glaciation in Deuteronilus Mensae, Mars: Inferences towards multiple glacial events in the past epochs
Sinha, Rishitosh K.; Murty, S. V. S.
In this study, we examine the existence of multiple episodes of glacial activities in Deuteronilus Mensae region on Mars from the analysis of high-resolution remote sensing images acquired by Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter (MRO) ConText Camera (CTX) and High resolution imaging science experiment (HiRISE). The investigated portion from northern mid-la…
Timescale for oceans in the past of Titan
McKay, Christopher P.; Larsson, Richard
We estimate the past extent of liquid on the surface of Titan as a function of time assuming the current rate of destruction of methane and no sources or subsurface sinks. As methane increases for increasing past time the polar lakes expand equatorward. We use a spherical harmonics model for the surface topography to compute the fraction of the su…
Recent improvements of the Saturnian satellites atlases: Mimas, Enceladus, and Dione
Matz, K. -D.; Roatsch, Th.; Wählisch, M. +3 more
The Cassini Imaging Science Subsystem (ISS) acquired many high-resolution images (<1 km/pixel) of the Icy Saturnian satellites during the nominal mission of the Cassini spacecraft between 2004 and 2008. These images were used to create high-resolution mosaics of these satellites. The Cassini mission is expected to continue till 2017 and high-re…