Pluto's atmosphere from the May 22, 2011 stellar occultation
Name
1028750393-MIT.pdf
Description
Full printable version
Size
3.7 MB
Format
Adobe PDF
Checksum (MD5)
b880b46c1b152587790291afc1b7dc3d
Author(s)
Sallum, Stephanie E
Advisor(s)
Richard P. Binzel.
Date Issued
2012
Publisher
Massachusetts Institute of Technology
Abstract
This paper reports the observations and atmospheric fitting results from the May 22, 2011 stellar occultation by Pluto. Of the nine sites across the United States that attempted to observe the event, three obtained light curves at the predicted midtime without being clouded out. Simultaneous fitting of these three light curves utilizing a model fully detailed in Elliot and Young [1992] resulted in a best fit half-light radius of 1309 ± 25 km, a calculated temperature of 94 ± 4 K, and a calculated pressure scale height of 55 ± 2 km. These parameters, in the context of the previous occultations, reveal a trend in which Pluto's half-light radius has been increasing slightly since an initial dramatic increase between 1988 and 2002. While the pressure scale height has remained relatively constant, the temperature has decreased slightly over the recorded events. The changes in half-light radius agree with frost migration models in which Pluto's surface has a low thermal inertia [Hansen and Paige, 1996; Elliot et al., 2007], but further constraints on frost migration model parameters such as substrate and frost albedo, frost emissivity, and the supply of N2 require additional observations. The New Horizons spacecraft should encounter a dynamic atmosphere on Pluto during the scheduled fly by in 2015.
Description
Thesis: S.B., Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Department of Earth, Atmospheric, and Planetary Sciences, 2012.
Cataloged from PDF version of thesis.
Includes bibliographical references (pages 40-41).
Subjects
Earth, Atmospheric, and Planetary Sciences.
MIT Department
Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Department of Earth, Atmospheric, and Planetary Sciences
Terms of Use
MIT theses are protected by copyright. They may be viewed, downloaded, or printed from this source but further reproduction or distribution in any format is prohibited without written permission.
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