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20 April 2024 |
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Stratospheric aftermath of the 2010 Storm on Saturn as observed by the TEXES instrument. I. Temperature structure | | Thierry Fouchet
; Thomas K. Greathouse
; Aymeric Spiga
; Leigh N. Fletcher
; Sandrine Guerlet
; Jérémy Leconte
; Glenn S. Orton
; | | Date: |
21 Apr 2016 | | Abstract: | We report on spectroscopic observations of Saturn’s stratosphere in July 2011
with the Texas Echelon Cross Echelle Spectrograph (TEXES) mounted on the NASA
InfraRed Telescope Facility (IRTF). The observations, targeting several lines
of the CH$_4$ $
u_4$ band and the H$_2$ S(1) quadrupolar line, were designed
to determine how Saturn’s stratospheric thermal structure was disturbed by the
2010 Great White Spot. A study of Cassini Composite Infrared Spectrometer
(CIRS) spectra had already shown the presence of a large stratospheric
disturbance centered at a pressure of 2~hPa, nicknamed the beacon B0, and a
tail of warm air at lower pressures (Fletcher et al. 2012. Icarus 221,
560--586). Our observations confirm that the beacon B0 vertical structure
determined by CIRS, with a maximum temperature of $180pm1$K at 2~hPa, is
overlain by a temperature decrease up to the 0.2-hPa pressure level. Our
retrieved maximum temperature of $180pm1$K is colder than that derived by CIRS
($200pm1$K), a difference that may be quantitatively explained by terrestrial
atmospheric smearing. We propose a scenario for the formation of the beacon
based on the saturation of gravity waves emitted by the GWS. Our observations
also reveal that the tail is a planet-encircling disturbance in Saturn’s upper
stratosphere, oscillating between 0.2 and 0.02~hPa, showing a distinct
wavenumber-2 pattern. We propose that this pattern in the upper stratosphere is
either the signature of thermal tides generated by the presence of the warm
beacon in the mid-stratosphere, or the signature of Rossby wave activity. | | Source: | arXiv, 1604.6479 | | Services: | Forum | Review | PDF | Favorites | |
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