Melin, H;
Fletcher, LN;
Stallard, TS;
Miller, S;
Trafton, LM;
Moore, L;
O'Donoghue, J;
... Chowdhury, MN; + view all
(2019)
The H₃⁺ ionosphere of Uranus: decades-long cooling and local-time morphology.
Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society A: Mathematical, Physical and Engineering Sciences
, 377
(2154)
, Article 20180408. 10.1098/rsta.2018.0408.
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Abstract
The upper atmosphere of Uranus has been observed to be slowly cooling between 1993 and 2011. New analysis of near-infrared observations of emission from H₃⁺ obtained between 2012 and 2018 reveals that this cooling trend has continued, showing that the upper atmosphere has cooled for 27 years, longer than the length of a nominal season of 21 years. The new observations have offered greater spatial resolution and higher sensitivity than previous ones, enabling the characterization of the H₃⁺ intensity as a function of local time. These profiles peak between 13 and 15 h local time, later than models suggest. The NASA Infrared Telescope Facility iSHELL instrument also provides the detection of a bright H₃⁺ signal on 16 October 2016, rotating into view from the dawn sector. This feature is consistent with an auroral signal, but is the only of its kind present in this comprehensive dataset.
| Type: | Article |
|---|---|
| Title: | The H₃⁺ ionosphere of Uranus: decades-long cooling and local-time morphology |
| Open access status: | An open access version is available from UCL Discovery |
| DOI: | 10.1098/rsta.2018.0408 |
| Publisher version: | https://doi.org/10.1098/rsta.2018.0408 |
| Language: | English |
| Additional information: | © 2019 The Authors. Published by the Royal Society under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/). |
| Keywords: | Uranus, aeronomy, spectroscopy |
| UCL classification: | UCL UCL > Provost and Vice Provost Offices > UCL BEAMS UCL > Provost and Vice Provost Offices > UCL BEAMS > Faculty of Maths and Physical Sciences UCL > Provost and Vice Provost Offices > UCL BEAMS > Faculty of Maths and Physical Sciences > Dept of Science and Technology Studies |
| URI: | https://discovery.ucl.ac.uk/id/eprint/10090813 |
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