GGrantIndex
← Search

TWO MAIN SOURCES HELP PRODUCE THE AIRGLOW THAT THE CASSINI-ULTRAVIOLET IMAGING SPECTROGRAPH (UVIS) INSTRUMENT OBSERVED IN TITAN S UPPER ATMOSPHERE. THE SOLAR XUV RADIATION IS THE MAIN SOURCE OF DAYGLOW WHILE MAGNETOSPHERIC PARTICLE PRECIPITATION PRINCIPALLY ACT ON THE NIGHTSIDE OF THE SATELLITE. ONE OF THE QUESTIONS THAT MIGHT STAY UNANSWERED AFTER THE END OF THE CASSINI MISSION CONCERNS THE ROLE AND QUANTIFICATION OF THE MAGNETOSPHERIC PARTICLE PRECIPITATION AND OTHER MINOR SOURCES SUCH AS MICROMETEORITE PRECIPITATION AND/OR COSMIC GALACTIC RAY. THE CASSINI-UVIS DATASET CONTAINS MORE THAN 10 000 OBSERVATIONS OF TITAN REALIZED WITH THE FAR-UV (FUV) AND EXTREME-UV (EUV) CHANNELS OF THE INSTRUMENTS AND DATA WERE CONTINUOUSLY ACQUIRED DURING THE 126 TITAN FLYBYS THAT THE CASSINI MISSION ACCOMPLISHED. THUS AT THE END OF THE MISSION WE HAVE AVAILABLE ALMOST 13 YEARS OF TITAN OBSERVATION IN THE UV WHICH REPRESENTS A LITTLE LESS THAN THE HALF OF A SATURN YEAR. TITAN HAS BEEN OBSERVED DURING VARIOUS SOLAR WIND AND MAGNETOSPHERIC CONDITIONS BUT TO DATE STILL VERY LITTLE OF THE UVIS DATA SET HAS BEEN ANALYZED AND EXPLORED. TREMENDOUS AMOUNT OF INFORMATION IS WAITING TO BE EXTRACTED. THE BEST EXAMPLE OF THIS SITUATION IS THE T32 FLYBY ON JUNE 13 2007 WHERE TITAN HAS BEEN OBSERVED BY UVIS AS WELL AS BY ALL IN-SITU INSTRUMENTS ONBOARD THE CASSINI SPACECRAFT. WHILE RESULTS CONCERNING THE T32 MAGNETOSPHERIC ENVIRONMENT HAVE BEEN LONG PUBLISHED BY ALL IN-SITU INSTRUMENT TEAMS NOBODY LOOKED AT THE UVIS DATA ON THIS PARTICULAR DAY UNTIL RECENTLY. ABSTRACTS AND PAPER PUBLISHED BY ROYER ET AL. DEMONSTRATED THAT ON T32 THE UVIS INSTRUMENT OBSERVED AN INTENSE RESPONSE FROM TITAN IONOSPHERE TO AN ELECTRON BURST OBSERVED BY THE CASSINI PLASMA SPECTROMETER (CAPS) IN-SITU INSTRUMENT. THIS PROJECT PRESENTED HERE INTENDS TO CORRELATE FURTHER REMOTE-SENSING AND IN-SITU OBSERVATIONS OF TITAN IN ORDER TO BETTER UNDERSTAND TITAN IONOSPHERIC RESPONSE TO ITS ENVIRONMENT AND WILL ENSURE THAT THE FULL POTENTIAL OF THE UVIS DATASET WILL BE USED. INVESTIGATION ON ATMOSPHERIC ESCAPE WILL ALSO BE PERFORMED. APPROACH AND METHODOLOGY THE WORK WILL PRIMARILY RELY ON THE TITAN UVIS LIBRARY WHICH CONSISTS IN A DATABASE OF UVIS DETECTOR IMAGES ALLOWING FOR A RAPID DETERMINATION OF THE PRESENCE OR NOT OF AN AIRGLOW IN TITAN S UPPER ATMOSPHERE. THE PROJECT WILL ALSO INCORPORATE ALL CAPS PUBLICLY AVAILABLE DATA. ON MOST OCCASIONS IN-SITU AS WELL AS REMOTE SENSING INSTRUMENTS SIMULTANEOUSLY MONITOR THE SATURNIAN ENVIRONMENT. USING PATTERN RECOGNITION ALGORITHMS WE WILL SEARCH FOR ENHANCED AIRGLOW IN THE UVIS DATA AND HIGH ELECTRON ENERGIES IN THE CAPS DATASET. IN ADDITION THE RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN THE SATURN LOCAL TIME AND TITAN AIRGLOW CHARACTERISTICS WILL BE EXPLORED. CAPS DATA WILL BE USED TO CORRELATE THE ELECTRON FLUX AND POTENTIAL PRESENCE OF IONS IN THE VICINITY OF THE SPACECRAFT WITH THE AIRGLOW CHARACTERISTICS AND THE AIRGLOW PATTERNS DETECTED BY UVIS. SCOPE OF THE PROGRAM AS STATED IN THE FULL ROSES 2018 THIS CDAP PROGRAM SOLICITS RESEARCH PROPOSALS TO CONDUCT SCIENTIFIC INVESTIGATIONS UTILIZING DATA OBTAINED BY THE CASSINI MISSION . WE WILL CONDUCT A SCIENTIFIC INVESTIGATION AS MANDATED AND WILL COMBINED DATA FROM TWO INSTRUMENTS (UVIS AND CAPS) ONBOARD THE CASSINI SPACECRAFT. OUR APPROACH IS NOVEL IN THE SENSE THAT IN-SITU AND REMOTE SENSING INSTRUMENTS ARE RARELY PART OF A SAME STUDY. THE GOAL OF THIS PROJECT IS THE PROVIDE A BETTER UNDERSTANDING OF THE INTERACTIONS BETWEEN TITAN S UPPER ATMOSPHERE AND ITS DIRECT MAGNETOSPHERIC ENVIRONMENT.

$324,586FY2020National Aeronautics and Space AdministrationNASA

Planetary Science Institute, Tucson AZ

Investigators

View source on USAspending →