Spectral characteristics and formation of high-altitude haze in the south-polar regions of Saturn
| Autor: | Tom Stallard, C.K. Sim, Regis Courtin, Sang Joon Kim |
|---|---|
| Přispěvatelé: | Laboratoire d'études spatiales et d'instrumentation en astrophysique (LESIA (UMR_8109)), Institut national des sciences de l'Univers (INSU - CNRS)-Observatoire de Paris, Université Paris sciences et lettres (PSL)-Université Paris sciences et lettres (PSL)-Université Paris Diderot - Paris 7 (UPD7)-Sorbonne Université (SU)-Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique (CNRS) |
| Jazyk: | angličtina |
| Rok vydání: | 2019 |
| Předmět: |
Haze
010504 meteorology & atmospheric sciences Astronomy and Astrophysics Atmospheric sciences 01 natural sciences Latitude Atmosphere Altitude 13. Climate action Space and Planetary Science Saturn 0103 physical sciences Environmental science Polar Precipitation Atmosphere of Titan [PHYS.ASTR]Physics [physics]/Astrophysics [astro-ph] 010303 astronomy & astrophysics ComputingMilieux_MISCELLANEOUS 0105 earth and related environmental sciences |
| Zdroj: | Icarus Icarus, Elsevier, 2019, 321, pp.436-444. ⟨10.1016/j.icarus.2018.12.004⟩ |
| ISSN: | 0019-1035 1090-2643 |
| Popis: | We analyzed the 3-µm emission spectra of Saturn's southern auroral atmosphere observed by the Visual Infrared Mapping Spectrometer (VIMS) on-board Cassini. Extracting adjacent 3-µm H 3 + , CH4, and C2H6 emissions, we derived vertically-resolved spectral structures of polar haze between 375 and 925 km altitude. A comparison of the derived polar haze spectra with those of the relatively low-altitudinal (257–520 km) and low-latitudinal haze reported by Kim et al. (2012) indicates that the polar haze is dominated by aromatic hydrocarbons while the haze at lower latitudes mostly consists of aliphatic hydrocarbons. This spectral and chemical variation in the different latitudinal regions suggests a possibility that newly created haze particles at the high altitudes in the auroral regions of Saturn undergo an aging process during latitudinal advection and diffusion from the polar atmosphere to the low altitude and low latitudinal regions, while in the atmosphere of Titan, the aging process occurs during the vertical precipitation process of haze (Courtin et al., 2015a). However, there is a possibility that the aging process can occur during both the horizontal and vertical migrations. Thus, further investigation of the 3-µm spectral structure of the high-altitude haze (>520 km) at low latitudes is needed. |
| Databáze: | OpenAIRE |
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