Buoyancy waves in Pluto's high atmosphere: Implications for stellar occultations

Author(s)
Person, Michael J.; Elliot, James L.; Gulbis, Amanda A. S.; Hubbard, William B.; McCarthy, D.W.; ... Show more
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Abstract
We apply scintillation theory to stellar signal fluctuations in the high-resolution, high signal/noise, dual-wavelength data from the MMT observation of the 2007 March 18 occultation of P445.3 by Pluto. A well-defined high wavenumber cutoff in the fluctuations is consistent with viscous-thermal dissipation of buoyancy waves (internal gravity waves) in Pluto’s high atmosphere, and provides strong evidence that the underlying density fluctuations are governed by the gravity-wave dispersion relation.
Date issued
2009-06
URI
http://hdl.handle.net/1721.1/73584
Department
Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Department of Earth, Atmospheric, and Planetary Sciences; Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Department of Physics
Journal
Icarus
Publisher
Elsevier
Citation
Hubbard, W.B. et al. “Buoyancy Waves in Pluto’s High Atmosphere: Implications for Stellar Occultations.” Icarus 204.1 (2009): 284–289.
Version: Author's final manuscript
ISSN
0019-1035
1090-2643
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