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SATURN'S RINGS ARE EXQUISITELY SENSITIVE PROBES OF THEIR DYNAMICAL ENVIRONMENTS AND THEY CONTAIN MULTIPLE STRUCTURES THAT CAN BE ATTRIBUTED TO PERTURBATIONS FROM OSCILLATIONS AND ASYMMETRIES IN THE PLANET'S GRAVITATIONAL FIELD. WE PROPOSE TO USE OCCULTATION DATA OBTAINED BY CASSINI SPACECRAFT TO OBTAIN A COMPLETE INVENTORY OF THESE FEATURES AND DETERMINE WHICH ARE GENERATED BY OSCILLATIONSINSIDE THE PLANET AND WHICH ARE DUE TO LONG-LIVED ASYMMETRIES IN THE PLANET'S INTERIOR. THESE MEASUREMENTS SHOULD PROVIDE NEW INSIGHTS INTO THE INTERNAL STRUCTURE OF GIANT PLANETS LIKE SATURN. OUR ANALYSIS PROGRAM WILL FOCUS ON OCCULTATION DATA OBTAIN BY THE VIMS UVIS AND RRS INSTRUMENTS ONBOARD THE CASSINI SPACECRAFT. THESE OBSERVATIONS HAVE NOT ONLY SUFFICIENT SPATIAL RESOLUTION TO DETECT THE RELEVANT RING FEATURES BUT ALSO THE VERY PRECISE GEOMETRICAL INFORMATION NEEDED TO ROBUSTLY DETERMINE THE FREQUENCIES AND SYMMETRIES OF THE PERTURBATION FORCES. THESE DATA WILL BE ANALYZED USING WAVELET-BASED TECHNIQUES THAT WE HAVE DEVELOPED AND REFINED OVER THE YEARS AND HAVE UTILIZED TO BOTH INFER PROPERTIES OF KNOWN FEATURES IN THE RINGS AND UNCOVER PREVIOUSLY UNKNOWN STRUCTURES. SINCE THIS INVESTIGATION WILL IMPROVE OUR UNDERSTANDING OF SATURN'S INTERIOR IT IS DIRECTLY RELEVANT TO THE CASSINI DATA ANALYSIS PROGRAM GOAL "TO ENHANCE THE SCIENTIFIC RETURN OF THE CASSINI MISSION BY BROADENING THE SCIENTIFIC PARTICIPATION IN THE ANALYSIS AND INTERPRETATION OF THE DATA RETURNED BY THE MISSION". THIS WORK WILL ALSO CONSIST OF "SCIENTIFIC INVESTIGATIONS UTILIZING ... DATA OBTAINED BY THE CASSINI MISSION" AND SO IS WELL WITHIN THE PURVIEW OF THE CASSINI DATA ANALYSIS PROGRAM.

$314,789FY2017National Aeronautics and Space AdministrationNASA

Regents Of The University Of Idaho, Moscow ID

Investigators

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