English

Io's Volcanic Activity from Time Domain Adaptive Optics Observations: 2013-2018

Earth and Planetary Astrophysics 2019-06-14 v1

Abstract

We present measurements of the near-infrared brightness of Io's hot spots derived from 2-5 micron imaging with adaptive optics on the Keck and Gemini N telescopes. The data were obtained on 271 nights between August 2013 and the end of 2018, and include nearly 1000 detections of over 75 unique hot spots. The 100 observations obtained between 2013 and 2015 have been previously published in de Kleer and de Pater (2016a); the observations since the start of 2016 are presented here for the first time, and the analysis is updated to include the full five-year dataset. These data provide insight into the global properties of Io's volcanism. Several new hot spots and bright eruptions have been detected, and the preference for bright eruptions to occur on Io's trailing hemisphere noted in the 2013-2015 data (de Kleer and de Pater 2016a) is strengthened by the larger dataset and remains unexplained. The program overlapped in time with Sprint-A/EXCEED and Juno observations of the jovian system, and correlations with transient phenomena seen in other components of the system have the potential to inform our understanding of the impact of Io's volcanism on Jupiter and its neutral/plasma environment.

Keywords

Cite

@article{arxiv.1906.05426,
  title  = {Io's Volcanic Activity from Time Domain Adaptive Optics Observations: 2013-2018},
  author = {Katherine de Kleer and Imke de Pater and Edward M. Molter and Elizabeth Banks and Ashley Gerard Davies and Carlos Alvarez and Randy Campbell and Joel Aycock and John Pelletier and Terry Stickel and Glenn G. Kacprzak and Nikole M. Nielsen and Daniel Stern and Joshua Tollefson},
  journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:1906.05426},
  year   = {2019}
}