Cassini UVIS observations of Europa's oxygen atmosphere and torus |
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| Authors: | Candice J Hansen Donald E Shemansky |
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| Institution: | a Jet Propulsion Laboratory, California Institute of Technology, Mail Stop 169-237, 4800 Oak Grove Dr., Pasadena, CA 91109-8099, USA
b Department of Aerospace Engineering, University of Southern California, 854 W. 36th Place, Los Angeles, CA 90089-1191, USA |
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| Abstract: | Observations of the Europa environment using the Cassini UltraViolet Imaging Spectrograph (UVIS) show the presence of an extended atomic oxygen atmosphere in addition to the bound molecular oxygen atmosphere first detected by Hubble Space Telescope in 1994 D.T. Hall, D.F. Strobel, P.D. Feldman, M.A. McGrath, H.A. Weaver, 1995, Detection of an oxygen atmosphere on Jupiter's moon Europa, Nature 373, 677-679]. The atomic oxygen measurement provides a direct constraint on the sputtering and loss of Europa's water ice surface and the interaction of Europa's atmosphere with Jupiter's magnetosphere. We derive a loss rate for O2 based on the emission rate of the OI 1356 Å multiplet. UVIS detected substantial variability in the oxygen emission from Europa's oxygen atmosphere that we attribute to the viewing geometry. B.H. Mauk, D.G. Mitchell, S.M. Krimigis, E.C. Roelof, C.P. Paranicas 2003, Energetic neutral atoms from a trans-Europa gas torus at Jupiter, Nature 421, 920-922] inferred the presence of a torus of neutral gas at Europa's orbit based on Cassini's energetic neutral atom (ENA) image of the Jupiter system acquired with the Magnetospheric Imaging Instrument (MIMI), with the most likely torus constituents being hydrogen and oxygen species sputtered from Europa. Cassini UVIS data rule out O and O2 as the possible torus species reported by Mauk et al. however, unless the torus density is so low that it is undetectable by UVIS (less than 8 atoms / cm3). The UVIS observations indicate the presence of atomic hydrogen and possibly other species, but a full analysis is deferred to a following paper. The hydrogen in the present observations shows a local-time asymmetry and complex spatial distribution. |
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| Keywords: | Europa Satellites atmospheres |
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