Wayne Pryor
MOP Abstract
June 25-29, 2008
San Antonio, TX
Title
: Cassini UVIS Observations of Saturn's Auroras
Authors : Pryor, W., Ajello, J., Gustin, J., Esposito, L., Jouchoux, A., Colwell, J.,
West, R., Larsen, K., Stewart, I., McClintock, W., Shemansky, D., Hansen, C.,
Clarke, J., Grodent, D., Gerard, J.-C., Baines, K., Drossart, P., Simon-Miller, A.,
Kurth, W., Crary, F., Mitchell, D., Dougherty, M.
Affiliation: Central Arizona College (for Pryor)
Keywords : Saturn, aurora, ultraviolet
Abstract : The Cassini Ultraviolet Imaging Spectrograph (UVIS) in orbit around
Saturn continues to return excellent data on Saturn's auroras and polar regions.
The auroras produce bright emissions of molecular and atomic hydrogen excited
by electron impact. We will present highlights of the auroral observations to date,
including recent observations obtained with the spacecraft at high latitudes,
permitting a good look at the auroral oval. By slow slews of the Cassini
spacecraft at right angles to the UVIS spectrograph's long slit, it is possible to
obtain spectral image cubes. On day 2007-096 we obtained 9 such spectral
image cubes of the northern aurora, showing details of the changing northern
oval.
The auroral observations need to be interpreted by comparisons with other
types of data. We will present such comparisons, making use of Cassini fields
and particles data, and complementary imaging from Cassini VIMS and Hubble
Space Telescope.