Pluto's lower atmosphere and pressure evolution from ground-based stellar occultations, 1988-2016
Abstract
Context. Pluto's tenuous nitrogen (N2) atmosphere undergoes strong seasonal effects due to high obliquity and orbital eccentricity, and has been recently (July 2015) observed by the New Horizons spacecraft. Goals are (i) construct a well calibrated record of the seasonal evolution of surface pressure on Pluto and (ii) constrain the structure of the lower atmosphere using a central flash observed in 2015. Method: eleven stellar occultations by Pluto observed between 2002 and 2016 are used to retrieve atmospheric profiles (density, pressure, temperature) between 5 km and 380 km altitude levels (i.e. pressures from about 10 microbar to 10 nanobar). Results: (i) Pressure has suffered a monotonic increase from 1988 to 2016, that is compared to a seasonal volatile transport model, from which tight constraints on a combination of albedo and emissivity of N2 ice are derived; (ii) A central flash observed on 2015 June 29 is consistent with New Horizons REX profiles, provided that (a) large diurnal temperature variations (not expected by current models) occur over Sputnik Planitia and/or (b) hazes with tangential optical depth of about 0.3 are present at 4-7 km altitude levels and/or (c) the nominal REX density values are overestimated by an implausibly large factor of about 20% and/or (d) higher terrains block part of the flash in the Charon facing hemisphere.
Cite
@article{arxiv.1903.02315,
title = {Pluto's lower atmosphere and pressure evolution from ground-based stellar occultations, 1988-2016},
author = {E. Meza and B. Sicardy and M. Assafin and J. L. Ortiz and T. Bertrand and E. Lellouch and J. Desmars and F. Forget and D. Bérard and A. Doressoundiram and J. Lecacheux and J. Marques Oliveira and F. Roques and T. Widemann and F. Colas and F. Vachier and S. Renner and R. Leiva and F. Braga-Ribas and G. Benedetti-Rossi and J. I. B. Camargo and A. Dias-Oliveira and B. Morgado and A. R. Gomes-Júnior and R. Vieira-Martins and R. Behrend and A. Castro Tirado and R. Duffard and N. Morales and P. Santos-Sanz and M. Jelínek and R. Cunniffe and R. Querel and M. Harnisch and R. Jansen and A. Pennell and S. Todd and V. D. Ivanov and C. Opitom and M. Gillon and E. Jehin and J. Manfroid and J. Pollock and D. E. Reichart and J. B. Haislip and K. M. Ivarsen and A. P. LaCluyze and A. Maury and R. Gil-Hutton and V. Dhillon and S. Littlefair and T. Marsh and C. Veillet and K. -L. Bath and W. Beisker and H. -J. Bode and M. Kretlow and D. Herald and D. Gault and S. Kerr and H. Pavlov and O. Faragó and O. Klös and E. Frappa and M. Lavayssière and A. A. Cole and A. B. Giles and J. G. Greenhill and K. M. Hill and M. W. Buie and C. B. Olkin and E. F. Young and L. A. Young and L. H. Wasserman and M. Devogèle and R. G. French and F. B. Bianco and F. Marchis and N. Brosch and S. Kaspi and D. Polishook and I. Manulis and M. Ait Moulay Larbi and Z. Benkhaldoun and A. Daassou and Y. El Azhari and Y. Moulane and J. Broughton and J. Milner and T. Dobosz and G. Bolt and B. Lade and A. Gilmore and P. Kilmartin and W. H. Allen and P. B. Graham and B. Loader and G. McKay and J. Talbot and S. Parker and L. Abe and Ph. Bendjoya and J. -P. Rivet and D. Vernet and L. Di Fabrizio and V. Lorenzi and A. Magazzù and E. Molinari and K. Gazeas and L. Tzouganatos and A. Carbognani and G. Bonnoli and A. Marchini and G. Leto and R. Zanmar Sanchez and L. Mancini and B. Kattentidt and M. Dohrmann and K. Guhl and W. Rothe and K. Walzel and G. Wortmann and A. Eberle and D. Hampf and J. Ohlert and G. Krannich and G. Murawsky and B. Gährken and D. Gloistein and S. Alonso and A. Román and J. -E. Communal and F. Jabet and S. de Visscher and J. Sérot and T. Janik and Z. Moravec and P. Machado and A. Selva and C. Perelló and J. Rovira and M. Conti and R. Papini and F. Salvaggio and A. Noschese and V. Tsamis and K. Tigani and P. Barroy and M. Irzyk and D. Neel and J. P. Godard and D. Lanoiselée and P. Sogorb and D. Vérilhac and M. Bretton and F. Signoret and F. Ciabattari and R. Naves and M. Boutet and J. De Queiroz and P. Lindner and K. Lindner and P. Enskonatus and G. Dangl and T. Tordai and H. Eichler and J. Hattenbach and C. Peterson and L. A. Molnar and R. R. Howell},
journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:1903.02315},
year = {2019}
}
Comments
21 pages, 11 figures