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| Titel |
The infrared aurora of Uranus |
| VerfasserIn |
Henrik Melin, Tom Stallard, Steve Miller |
| Konferenz |
EGU General Assembly 2010
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| Medientyp |
Artikel
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| Sprache |
Englisch
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| Digitales Dokument |
PDF |
| Erschienen |
In: GRA - Volume 12 (2010) |
| Datensatznummer |
250036868
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| Zusammenfassung |
| Uranus is unique planet within the solar system, with it’s rotational axis lying in the plane of
the ecliptic and it’s magnetic field being offset some 90 degrees from that. Its aurora has only
been observed once, on the nightside, by the Voyager space-craft as it flew past in
1986.
The molecular ion H3+ is a well established probe of the auroral morphology and
thermospheric conditions of both Jupiter and Saturn and has the significant advantage that it
can be observed sing ground-based telescopes.
Here, we present the results from an extended ground-based campaign of Uranus
observations, attempting to detect aurora on the dayside of the planet. Data has been taken on
numerous occasions between 1995 and 2006, providing a total H3+ emission from the disk of
the planet. By accounting for the expected H3+ produced by solar radiation, this data reveals
that the intensity of the emission is not directly correlated to the fluctuations in
solar cycle. This means that there is an additional component produced by particle
precipitation providing, for the first time, direct evidence of an H3+ aurora on Uranus |
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