Title

Scattering properties of Saturn's rings in the far ultraviolet from Cassini UVIS spectra

Authors

Authors

E. T. Bradley; J. E. Colwell;L. W. Esposito

Comments

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Abbreviated Journal Title

Icarus

Keywords

Saturn, Rings; Ices; Ultraviolet observations; Ices, UV spectroscopy; OUTER SOLAR-SYSTEM; SELF-GRAVITY WAKES; SURFACE-COMPOSITION; ICY; SATELLITES; VIMS; OCCULTATIONS; SPECTROSCOPY; RADIATION; MODEL; MOON; Astronomy & Astrophysics

Abstract

We use Cassini UVIS data to determine the scattering properties of Saturn's ring particles in the FUV. We have replaced the scattering function from the classical Chandrasekhar single scattering radiative transfer equation for reflectance with a ring wake model for the A and B rings derived from stellar occultations. The free parameters in this model are the ring particle Bond albedo, A(B), and the ring particle asymmetry parameter, g, which equals the cosine of the most probable scattering angle of a photon from a ring particle. The spectrum of Saturn's rings from 140 to 190 nm shows an absorption feature due to water ice shortward of 165 nm. We compare our model values for I/F to lit-side data at 155 nm and at 180 nm for regions in both the A and B rings. We used the unmodified Chandrasekhar model for the C ring and Cassini Division, and in all cases we determined A(B) and g in the FUV for the first time. Values of AB vary between 0.04 and 0.091 at 180 nm and between 0.012 and 0.019 at 155 nm. The variations across the ring of A(B) at 180 nm is consistent with a greater abundance of non-ice contaminant in the C ring and Cassini Division and a minimum in contaminant abundance in the outer B ring. There is little variation in A(B) at 155 nm across the rings, which suggests that the reflectance of the water ice and non-water ice material shortward of the 165 nm absorption edge are about the same. Values of g vary between -0.68 and -0.78 at 180 nm and between -0.63 and -0.77 at 155 nm showing that the ring particles are highly backscattering in the FUV. We find that the wavelength of the absorption feature varies with ring region and viewing geometry indicating a different photon mean path length, L, through the outer layer of the ring particle (Bradley, ET., Colwell, J.E., Esposito, LW., Cuzzi, J.N., Tollerud, H., Chambers, L [2010]. Icarus 206 (2), 458-466). We compared I/F from 152 to 185 nm to a radiative transfer spectral model developed by Shkuratov et al. (Shkuratov, Y., Starukhina, L., Hoffmann, H., Arnold, G. [1999]. Icarus 137, 235-246) and modified by Poulet et al. (Poulet, F., Cuzzi, J.N., Cruikshank, D.P., Roush, T., Dalle Ore, C.M. [2002]. Icarus 160, 313-324). We find that L is positively correlated with phase angle, which we attribute to multiple scattering within the particle on length scales comparable to L. We extrapolate L to zero phase angle and find values of L at zero phase ranging from similar to 2 to 3 mu m. This provides a direct measure of the distance from the surface of a ring particle to the first scattering center. L at zero phase is roughly constant across the rings suggesting the outermost 1.25 mu m of the ring particles have the same structural properties in all ring regions. We azimuthally binned and interpolated observations of the unlit side of the A ring taken during Saturn orbit insertion to a 100 km resolution radial profile. We see halos (enhanced brightness) surrounding the Janus 4:3 and Janus 5:4 density waves. We also computed I/F across the A ring using the SOI observational geometry along with A(B) and the power-law index, n, derived from the retrieval approach from lit side observations. I/F determined by this technique agrees with results from the lit side analysis for the A2 ring but diverge for the inner and outer A ring, which we attribute to multiple scattering effects. (C) 2013 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

Journal Title

Icarus

Volume

225

Issue/Number

1

Publication Date

1-1-2013

Document Type

Article

Language

English

First Page

726

Last Page

739

WOS Identifier

WOS:000321161800058

ISSN

0019-1035

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