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Continuum and spectroscopic observations of asteroid (21) Lutetia at millimeter and submillimeter wavelengths with the MIRO instrument on the Rosetta spacecraft
Ip, W. -H.; Hartogh, P.; Lellouch, E. +18 more
The European Space Agency's Rosetta spacecraft made a close flyby of asteroid (21) Lutetia on July 10, 2010. The spacecraft carries a dual-band radiometer/spectrometer instrument, named MIRO, which operates at 190 GHz (1.6 mm) and 560 GHz (0.5 mm). During the flyby, the MIRO instrument measured the temperature of Lutetia in both the northern and s…
Impact of solar EUV flux on CO Cameron band and CO2+ UV doublet emissions in the dayglow of Mars
Bhardwaj, Anil; Jain, Sonal Kumar
This study is aimed at making a calculation about the impact of the two most commonly used solar EUV flux models - SOLAR2000 (S2K) of Tobiska (2004) and EUVAC model of Richards et al. (1994) - on photoelectron fluxes, volume emission rates, ion densities and CO Cameron and CO2+ UV doublet band dayglow emissions on Mars in thr…
Dune fields on Mars: Recorders of a climate change?
Quantin, Cathy; Silvestro, Simone; Gardin, Emilie +2 more
Dunes have similar morphologies on the Earth and Mars. The main differences between Martian and terrestrial dunes are their size, which is larger on Mars, and their duration of formation, which is longer on Mars. As the characteristic time of Martian dunes is in the same order as that of the Martian climatic oscillations, Martian dunes could be re…
Winds and tides of Ligeia Mare, with application to the drift of the proposed time TiME (Titan Mare Explorer) capsule
Lorenz, Ralph D.; Tokano, Tetsuya; Newman, Claire E.
We use two independent General Circulation Models (GCMs) to estimate surface winds at Titan’s Ligeia Mare (78° N, 250° W), motivated by a proposed mission to land a floating capsule in this ∼500 km hydrocarbon sea. The models agree on the overall magnitude (∼0.5-1 m/s) and seasonal variation (strongest in summer) of windspeeds, but details of seas…
Global mapping of Titan‧s surface using an empirical processing method for the atmospheric and photometric correction of Cassini/VIMS images
Nicholson, Philip D.; Sotin, Christophe; Barnes, Jason W. +8 more
We have processed all images of Titan's surface acquired by the Visual and Infrared Mapping Spectrometer between 2004 and 2010, with the objective of producing seamless global mosaics of the surface in the six infrared atmospheric windows at 1.08, 1.27, 1.59, 2.03, 2.6-2.7 and 5 µm. A systematic study of the photometry at 5 µm, where h…
Surface mineralogy and stratigraphy of the lunar South Pole-Aitken basin determined from Clementine UV/VIS and NIR data
Davies, G. R.; Foing, B. H.; Borst, A. M. +1 more
The South Pole-Aitken (SPA) basin, located on the lunar far side, is one of the oldest and largest recognised impact structures in the solar system. The basin is a proposed site for future sample return missions and human bases due to the unique geological environment and its potential for preservation of water ice in areas of near-permanent shado…
The distribution of Titan's high-altitude (out to ∼50,000 km) exosphere from energetic neutral atom (ENA) measurements by Cassini/INCA
Dandouras, I.; Garnier, P.; Krimigis, S. M. +3 more
We report observations of Titan's high-altitude exosphere detected out to about 50,000 km altitude. The observations were made by the Ion Neutral Camera (INCA) on board the Cassini spacecraft. INCA detects energetic neutral atoms (ENA) that are formed when the ambient magnetospheric ions charge exchange with Titan's neutral atmosphere and exospher…
Overview of Lutetia's surface composition
Sierks, H.; Barucci, M. A.; Fornasier, S. +10 more
All available data regarding compositionally diagnostic measurements of asteroid (21) Lutetia are assembled. We review ground-based observations together with recent spacecraft mission (Rosetta, Herschel and Spitzer) measurements. The aim of this paper is to gather all the pieces of the Lutetia puzzle, in order to derive the most probable surface …
Formulation of a wind specification for Titan late polar summer exploration
Achterberg, Richard K.; Lorenz, Ralph D.; Tokano, Tetsuya +4 more
Titan's polar regions, and its hydrocarbon lakes in particular, are of interest for future exploration. The polar conditions have considerable seasonal variation and are distinct from the equatorial environment experienced by Huygens. Thus specific environmental models are required for these regions. This paper, informed by Cassini and groundbased…
Geochemical and mineralogical analysis of Gruithuisen region on Moon using M3 and DIVINER images
Murty, S. V. S.; Kusuma, K. N.; Sebastian, N.
Spectral information from the Moon Mineralogy Mapper (M3) onboard Chandrayaan-1 and DIVINER Lunar Radiometer onboard LRO have been used for geochemical and mineralogical characterisation of the Gruithuisen region on Moon along with morphometrical information from LOLA Digital elevation model. The apparent reflectance of M3 on global mode is used f…