Title

Morphology and variability of the Titan ringlet and Huygens ringlet edges

Authors

Authors

R. G. Jerousek; J. E. Colwell;L. W. Esposito

Comments

Authors: contact us about adding a copy of your work at STARS@ucf.edu

Abbreviated Journal Title

Icarus

Keywords

Planetary rings; Saturn, Rings; Occultations; SATURNS RINGS; Astronomy & Astrophysics

Abstract

We present a forward modeling approach for determining, in part, the ring particle spatial distribution in the vicinity of sharp ring or ringlet edges. Synthetic edge occultation profiles are computed based on a two-parameter particle spatial distribution model. One parameter, h, characterizes the vertical extent of the ring and the other, delta, characterizes the radial scale over which the ring optical depth transitions from the background ring value to zero. We compare our synthetic occultation profiles to high resolution stellar occultation light curves observed by the Cassini Ultraviolet Imaging Spectrograph (UVIS) High Speed Photometer (HSP) for occultations by the Titan ringlet and Huygens ringlet edges. More than 100 stellar occultations of the Huygens ringlet and Titan ringlet edges were studied, comprising 343 independent occultation cuts of the edges of these two ringlets. In 237 of these profiles the measured light-curve was fit well with our two-parameter edge model. Of the remaining edge occultations, 69 contained structure that could only be fit with extremely large values of the ring-plane vertical thickness (h > 1 km) or by adopting a different model for the radial profile of the ring optical depth. An additional 37 could not be fit by our two-parameter model. Certain occultations at low ring-plane incidence angles as well as occultations nearly tangent to the ring edge allow the direct measurement of the radial scale over which the particle packing varies at the edge of the ringlet. In 24 occultations with these particular viewing geometries, we find a wide variation in the radial scale of the edge. We are able to constrain the vertical extent of the rings at the edge to less than similar to 300 m in the 70% of the occultations with appropriate viewing geometry, however tighter constraints could not be placed on h due to the weaker sensitivity of the occultation profile to vertical thickness compared to its sensitivity to delta. Many occultations of a single edge could not be fit to a single value of delta, indicating large temporal or azimuthal variability, although the azimuthal variation in delta with respect to the longitudes of various moons in the system did not show any discernible pattern. (C) 2011 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

Journal Title

Icarus

Volume

216

Issue/Number

1

Publication Date

1-1-2011

Document Type

Article

Language

English

First Page

280

Last Page

291

WOS Identifier

WOS:000296658100026

ISSN

0019-1035

Share

COinS