Saturn's emitted power
Creators
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Li, Liming1, 2
- Conrath, Barney J.2
- Gierasch, Peter J.2
- Achterberg, Richard K.3
- Nixon, Conor A.3
- Simon‐Miller, Amy A.4
- Flasar, F. Michael4
- Banfield, Don2
- Baines, Kevin H.5
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West, Robert A.5
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Ingersoll, Andrew P.6
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Vasavada, Ashwin R.5
- Del Genio, Anthony D.7
- Porco, Carolyn C.8
- Mamoutkine, Andrei A.9
- Segura, Marcia E.
- Bjoraker, Gordon L.4
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Orton, Glenn S.5
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Fletcher, Leigh N.10
- Irwin, Patrick G. J.10
- Read, Peter L.10
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1.
University of Houston
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2.
Cornell University
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3.
University of Maryland, College Park
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4.
Goddard Space Flight Center
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5.
Jet Propulsion Lab
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6.
California Institute of Technology
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7.
Goddard Institute for Space Studies
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8.
Space Science Institute
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9.
Science Systems and Applications (United States)
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10.
University of Oxford
Abstract
Long-term (2004–2009) on-orbit observations by Cassini Composite Infrared Spectrometer are analyzed to precisely measure Saturn's emitted power and its meridional distribution. Our evaluations suggest that the average global emitted power is 4.952 ± 0.035 W m^(−2) during the period of 2004–2009. The corresponding effective temperature is 96.67 ± 0.17 K. The emitted power is 16.6% higher in the Southern Hemisphere than in the Northern Hemisphere. From 2005 to 2009, the global mean emitted power and effective temperature decreased by ~2% and ~0.5%, respectively. Our study further reveals the interannual variability of emitted power and effective temperature between the epoch of Voyager (~1 Saturn year ago) and the current epoch of Cassini, suggesting changes in the cloud opacity from year to year on Saturn. The seasonal and interannual variability of emitted power implies that the energy balance and internal heat are also varying.
Additional Information
© 2010 American Geophysical Union. Received 20 April 2010; revised 3 August 2010; accepted 16 August 2010; published 9 November 2010. NASA Outer Planets Research Program funded this work. We acknowledge Santigo Perez‐Hoyos for providing the data of solar flux at the top of Saturn's atmosphere. We are also grateful for valuable comments and suggestions on this work from two anonymous reviewers.Attached Files
Published - Li2010p12020J_Geophys_Res-Planet.pdf
Files
Li2010p12020J_Geophys_Res-Planet.pdf
Additional details
Identifiers
- Eprint ID
- 21241
- Resolver ID
- CaltechAUTHORS:20101208-111536827
Funding
- NASA
Dates
- Created
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2010-12-14Created from EPrint's datestamp field
- Updated
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2021-11-09Created from EPrint's last_modified field
Caltech Custom Metadata
- Caltech groups
- Division of Geological and Planetary Sciences (GPS)