Corrections to Watts' charts varying with libration

About 169000 observations of lunar occultations of stars are analysed for systematic corrections to Watts' charts of the marginal zone of the Moon. Corrections to the radius and shape varying with libration are derived. These are in good agreement with previous results.     

Asteroid albedos deduced from stellar occultations

Albedos for 57 asteroids were determined using diameters obtained from stellar occultations. For 18 objects, the occultation albedos were determined to accuracies better than 5%. The effect on the occultation albedo due to errors in the asteroid absolute magnitude is discussed and correlations between the occultation albedos and IRAS and polarimetric albedos are presented. The higher-quality occultation albedos presented here are suitable for calibrating albedos obtained by indirect methods.     

The structure of Titan’s atmosphere from Cassini radio occultations

We present results from the two radio occultations of the Cassini spacecraft by Titan in 2006, which probed mid-southern latitudes. Three of the ingress and egress soundings occurred within a narrow latitude range, 31-34°S near the surface, and the fourth at 52.8°S. Temperature-altitude profiles for all four occultation soundings are presented, and compared with the results of the Voyager 1 radio occultation (Lindal, G.F., Wood, G.E., Hotz, H.B., Sweetnam, D.N., Eshleman, V.R., Tyler, G.L. [1983]. Icarus 53, 348-363), the HASI instrument on the Huygens descent probe (Fulchignoni, M. et al. [2005]. Nature 438, 785-791), and Cassini CIRS results (Flasar, F.M. et al. [2005]. Science 308, 975-978; Achterberg, R.K., Conrath, B.J., Gierasch, P.J., Flasar, F.M., Nixon, C.A. [2008b]. Icarus 194, 263-277). Sources of error in the retrieved temperature-altitude profiles are also discussed, and a major contribution is from spacecraft velocity errors in the reconstructed ephemeris. These can be reduced by using CIRS data at 300 km to make along-track adjustments of the spacecraft timing. The occultation soundings indicate that the temperatures just above the surface at 31-34°S are about 93 K, while that at 53°S is about 1 K colder. At the tropopause, the temperatures at the lower latitudes are all about 70 K, while the 53°S profile is again 1 K colder. The temperature lapse rate in the lowest 2 km for the two ingress (dawn) profiles at 31 and 33°S lie along a dry adiabat except within ∼200 m of the surface, where a small stable inversion occurs. This could be explained by turbulent mixing with low viscosity near the surface. The egress profile near 34°S shows a more complex structure in the lowest 2 km, while the egress profile at 53°S is more stable.     

Interpretation of surface features of Europa obtained from occultations by Io

Light curves of occultations of Europa by Io have been used to generate a crude map of abledo features on Europa. The best values currently available for the impact parameters and magnitude ratios for each event have been imposed on our model. Residuals between the observed and computed light curves are interpreted as albedo features on Europa. In order to improve the fit between the observations and the model it became necessary to impose a general polar brightening. The effects of additional albedo features and alternate models are discussed.     

Jovian satellite-satellite eclipses and occultations

Toward the end of 1973 and in the first part of 1974, when the planes of the orbits of the four large Galilean satellites cross the Sun and the Earth, satellite-satellite eclipses and occultations will occur. Calculations indicate that during this period 350 such events will occur, most of them potentially observable. From observation of a few of these events the ephemerides of the satellites can be improved, radii and limb darkening curves determined, and crude information about the degree and extent of albedo fluctuations deduced. If a concerted effort were made and a large fraction of these events carefully observed it would be possible to invert the light curves to obtain albedo maps of most of the surface area at a typical resolution of about 100km for JI and JII and somewhat poorer for JIII and JIV. In 1979—the next opportunity—there will be considerably fewer events, and only a relative few of them will be observable at night.     

The profile of Saturn's ring a as derived from stellar occultations

Stellar occultations behind Saturn's ring A reveal sharp-edged gaps in its outer parts. Observed fluctuations in stellar brightness during one observation can be interpreted as Fresnel's diffraction zones. According to this the sharpness of the edges of the gap are estimated to be under 700 m, which also means that the thickness of ring A in that part cannot exceed a few hundred metres. A further conclusion is that particle size must be a lot less than a few hundred metres.     

A low resolution map of Europa from four occultations by Io

Analysis of three occultations of JII (Europa) by JI (Io) has resulted in a preliminary reflectivity map of JII for the hemisphere centered on longitude 324°, a measurement of 1483±20 km for the radius of JII, estimates of the event impact parameters, determination of the mid event times, and a visual geometric albedo, p_ν = 0.74, for JII. A fourth occultation light curve was used after derivation of the results to confirm their validity.     

Thermal structure of the atmosphere of Venus from Pioneer Venus radio occultations

Eighty-seven measurements of the thermal structure in the atmosphere of Venus between the altitudes of about 40 and 85 km were derived from Pioneer Venus Orbiter radio occultation data taken during four occultation seasons from December 1978 to October 1981. These measurements cover latitudes from ?68 to 88° and solar zenith angles of 8 to 166°. The results indicate that the characteristics of the thermal structure in both the troposphere and stratosphere regions are dependent predominantly on the latitude and only weakly on solar illumination conditions. In particular, the circumpolar collar cloud region in the northern hemisphere (latitude 55 to 77°) displays the most dramatic changes in structure, including the appearance of a large inversion, having an average magnitude of about 18°K and a maximum of about 33°K. Also in this region, the tropopause altitude rises by about 4.8 km above its value at low latitudes, the tropopause temperature drops by about 60°K, and the pressure at the tropopause decreases by an average of about 240 mbar. These changes in the collar region are correlated with observations of increased turbulence and greater amplitude of thermal waves in the region, which is located where the persistent circulation pattern in the Venus atmosphere changes from zonally symmetric retrograde rotation to a hemispherical circumpolar vortex. It was shown that the large zonal winds associated with this circulation pattern are not likely to produce distortions in the atmosphere of a magnitude that could lead to temperature errors of the order of the mesosphere inversions observed in the collar region, but under certain circumstances zonal wind distortion could cause errors of 3–4°K.     

System of absolute elevations in the marginal zone of the moon derived from stellar occultations

The present paper contains an outline of the method for a determination of the altitudes in the lunar marginal zone from occultations of the stars by the Moon; and the limb charts of this zone were constructed from such altitudes.     

Corrections to the improved lunar ephemeris

Based primarily upon the formation of new conditional equations using analytical partial derivatives of the moon's mean elements, meridian circle observations of the moon from 1952–67 have been examined to determine corrections to the constants of lunar theory and to the fundamental coordinate system (FK4). With certain exceptions, the new corrections are in agreement with those published earlier by the author. Systematic corrections to FK4 are surprisingly large, although in agreement with some other recent determinations. New corrections to the lunar ephemeris, resulting from the discussion, are also presented.     

Turbulence in planetary occultations: II. Effects on atmospheric profiles derived from Doppler measurements

Turbulence in planetary atmospheres leads to both fluctuating and systematic errors in atmospheric profiles derived from Doppler measurements during radio occultation. If the upper atmospheres of Venus and Jupiter are about as turbulent as the earth's troposphere, we deduce rms fractional errors in temperature and pressure of less than ～ 10^?2 for the Mariner 10 and Pioneer 10/11 occultation experiments. Fractional systematic errors are typically of the order of 10^?6. These estimates depende rather weakly on quantities characterizing the atmosphere and the occultation, and it is conjectured that turbulence-induced errors in atmospheric profiles derived from Doppler measurements are always very small in the weak scattering limit     

Astrometry of Iapetus, Ariel, Umbriel, and Titania from eclipses and occultations

Highly accurate astrometric positions obtained from eclipses and occultations of planetary satellites are reported. These measurements may be used to test existing ephemerides, to improve upon them, and to fit system constants such as satellite masses and planetary zonal harmonics. Eclipse and occultation photometry of 5 uranian satellite mutual events has resulted in precise astrometry for 3 of these moons. Relative satellite positions were determined with an uncertainty of less than 10 milli-arcseconds for 4 of the events. These observations plus two additional data from C. Miller and N.J. Chanover (private communication) indicate that predictions based on the SPICE [Acton, C.H., 1996. Planet. Space Sci. 44, 65-70] ephemeris URA083 and those from the LA06 ephemeris in a paper by Arlot et al. [Arlot, J.-E., Lainey, V., Thuillot, W., 2006. Astron. Astrophys. 456, 1173-1179] are significantly more accurate than predictions generated by Christou [Christou, A.A., 2005. Icarus 178, 171-178] using the GUST86 ephemeris in the along-track component of motion. The observations indicate that Ariel, Umbriel and Titania are lagging behind their predicted positions for all of the ephemerides, but by varying distances and significance levels. Analysis of data recorded by Hidas et al. [Hidas, M.G., Christou, A.A., Brown, T.M., 2008. Mon. Not. R. Astron. Soc. 384, L38-L40] suggests a similar lag for Oberon. Photometry recorded during the ingress portion of a saturnian eclipse of Iapetus on 2007 May 5 indicates that the middle of the event occurred at geocentric UTC 02:14:58. At that moment the center of the satellite disk facing the Sun was intersected by a solar-centered ray refracted at a minimum altitude of 240 km above the 1-bar pressure level in the planet's atmosphere. The uncertainty in the timings due to observational scatter was only 5 s which equates to 16 km of Iapetus motion, but other factors increased the overall uncertainty to 111 km or 16 milli-arcseconds at the distance of Saturn from the Sun. The astrometric result is fit very well by the SPICE ephemeris SAT288.     

Strong turbulence and atmospheric waves in stellar occultations

Many of the problems of stellar occultation observations stem from the difficulty of determining the effects of realistic atmospheric structure on the lightcurves. General techniques for producing model lightcurves for a variety of realistic atmospheric irregularities, including turbulence and inertia-gravity waves, are presented and applied. Using numerical simulations which model the propagation of a wave through a phase-changing screen, the limit of strong scintillations for one-dimensional, Kolmogorov-like turbulence, both for a point source and for extended sources, is investigated in some detail, and significant departures from the behavior in the weak scintillation regime are found. The results are compared with published analytical results and recent occultation data. The effects of large-scale atmospheric waves with realistic horizontal structure are examined, and the reliability of the numerical inversion method of retrieving the true atmospheric vertical structure under circumstances of strong ray crossing and horizontal inhomogeneities is assessed. The simulations confirm that large-scale layered features of the atmosphere are accurately recovered; horizontally inhomogeneous structures (including turbulence) with coherence scale $\text{L ? (2πRH)}{}^{\mathrm{<mtext>1</mtext><mtext>2</mtext>}}$ (where R = planetary radius and H = scale height) have little effect on the derived temperature profiles. It is concluded that analysis of occultations may eventually allow us to determine both the quasiglobal atmospheric structure and the statistical characteristics of small-scale refractivity variations.     

Observations of asteroid occultations by the trailed-image method

The method of trailed CCD images for observations of asteroid occultations is described. This method was used to observe 9 asteroid occupations at the Lisnyky observational station in 2006 with the telescope AZT-8 (D= 0.7m and F= 2.8m) equipped by the CCD ST-8 XME. In the case of occultation of the star TYC 0587-00209-1U by the asteroid 76 Freia in November 4, 2006, the distance between the asteroid center and the star, as well as the time of asteroid occultation were determined. The size of asteroid 76 Freia is determined assuming that its shape is spherically symmetric. In other cases, the minimal distances between the asteroid center and the star are determined. The method makes it possible to observe asteroid occultations with high time resolution.     

Turbulence in planetary occultations: III. Effects on atmospheric profiles derived from intensity measurements

The intensities of radio and optical signals observed during spacecraft and stellar occultations by planets scintillate due to atmospheric turbulence. The combined effect of turbulent fluctuations in refractivity and the average atmospheric gradient are found to produce slightly smaller signal intensity scintillations than the homogeneous case when there is no gradient, in contrast to a prediction that the scintillations would be markedly increased. Profiles of atmospheric temperature and pressure derived from intensity measurements are found to have much larger errors due to turbulence than do the corresponding profiles derived from radio Doppler frequency measurements. However, such errors are still small in the limit of weak scattering, which is assumed here. Radio and optical occultation experiments tend to be complementary since the generally shorter distances involved in the former mean that the radio experiments can probe relatively deeply into the atmosphere, while the optical experiments are limited to tenuous atmospheric regions. Because the radio experiments generally have a much greater dynamic measurement range, they are more likely to encounter conditions where strong scattering occurs than will the optical occultation experiments, provided the rms turbulent refractivity increases with depth approximately as the refractivity of the quiescent atmosphere.     

The density and temperature structure near the exobase of Saturn from Cassini UVIS solar occultations

We analyzed 15 solar occultations observed by the Cassini UVIS instrument to constrain the density and temperature structure near the exobase of Saturn. We retrieved the density of H₂ and thus the temperature at altitudes higher than 1900 km above the 1 bar level by analyzing the ionization continuum of H₂ at wavelengths shorter than 804 Å. We find that the exospheric temperature ranges from 370 K to 540 K, with a typical uncertainty of less than 20 K. According to our data the temperature increases with latitude from the equator to the poles by 100–150 K. At similar latitudes, the temperature varies by 20–50 K at different times with no evidence for any systematic diurnal trend so far. Based on our data, the exobase of Saturn is 2700–3000 km above the 1 bar level and the thermal escape parameter near the exobase ranges from 260 to 340, implying that thermal escape from Saturn is firmly in the Jeans regime. The mixing ratio of H₂ is close to unity at all altitudes below the exobase. We find that the pressure levels in the thermosphere deviate significantly from a simple spheroid predicted by potential theory. This is consistent with significant meridional temperature variations in the lower thermosphere. A global analysis of the temperature structure at different depths in the atmosphere is required to constrain both the shape and the deposition and redistribution of energy in the upper atmosphere further.     

Corrections to the luni-solar precession derived from a compilation catalogue of extragalactic radio sources

Observation catalogues of extragalactic radio sources obtained by Very long Baseline Interferometry during the last decade agree in the mean to a few milliarcseconds (mas). Within this range the position differences show constant, linear and periodic offsets. To reduce the influence of individual catalogue properties the construction of a compilation catalogue seems to be the appropriate procedure. In some detail the compilation method is described providing simultaneous adjustment of source positions and catalogue corrections. The compilation catalogue consists of 40 objects having positional errors of 0.2 mas in right ascension (RA) and 0.3 mas in declination (Dec). Comparing this catalogue with the IERS Celestial Reference Frame compiled by means of other precepts yields weighted root-mean-square differences of 0.7 mas in RA and 1.3 mas in Dec. Finally, the terms of general precession in RA and Dec are included in the adjustment process giving estimates of the correction to the luni-solar precession between –1 and –3 mas/yr, the latter figure applying when some early data are added.     

Relativist ic Corrections to the Thermal Sunyaev-Zel''''dovich Power Spectrum

We present a quantitative estimate of the relativistic corrections to the thermal SZ power spectrum produced by the energetic electrons in massive clusters. The corrections are well within 10% for current experiments with working frequencies below v < 100 GHz, but become non-negligible at high frequencies v > 350 GHz. Moreover, the corrections appear to be slightly smaller at higher l or smaller angular scales. We conclude that there is no need to include the relativistic corrections in the theoretical study of the SZ power spectrum especially at low frequencies unless the SZ power spectrum is used for precision cosmology.     

Turbulence in planetary occultations: I. A theoretical formulation

First- and second-order effects of turbulance on radio propagation through an atmosphere with uniformly varying average refractive index combined with a random component due to turbulence are calculated both from the Eikonal equation of geometrical optics and from a weak scattering wave-optical formulation. To second order in the strength of the turbulence, the average phase path is reduced relative to that in a nonturbulent atmosphere with the same average refractivity, implying a higher average phase velocity of the radiowave when turbulence is present. Also, the magnitude of the phase offset is controlled by the size of the principal Fresnel zone, implying that the medium becomes slightly dispersive by the addition of turbulence. Turbulence effects on the Doppler frequency separate into three distinct types involving: (1) zero-mean terms having the form of a coupling between the average and turbulent refractive field components; (2) terms of second order in the turbulence, modified by the average refractive field and consistent with an average bias in Doppler frequency when the rms turbulent intensity has a spatial variation normal to the raypath; and (3) additional second-order terms, again modified by the average refractive field, having a nozeroo average even for homogeneous turbulence. Under plausible conditions (1) produces the largest mean-square effects, while (2) represents the largest contribution to the average bias in Doppler frequency. For a turbulence power spectrum proportional to the (?p) power of the wave-number, the bias in Doppler frequency, like the average bias in phase path, depends on the radiation wavelength as $\text{λ}{}^{\mathrm{<mtext>p</mtext><mtext>2-2</mtext>}}$, or as $\text{λ}{}^{\mathrm{<mtext>?1</mtext><mtext>6</mtext>}}$ for Kolmogorov turbulence.     

Scintillations during occultations by planets I. An approximate theory

Fluctuations are observed during occultations of both stars and spacecraft by planetary atmospheres. Existing treatments of spacecraft scintillations ignore a major effect unique to occultations: the severe flattening of the Fresnel zone or source image by defocusing. Other large effects, due to “saturation” of the scintillation, have also been ignored. The deeper portions of atmospheric temperature and density profiles inferred from occultation data are seriously in error if other planets' atmospheres are as turbulent as our own. Thus, profiles obtained from entry probes (e.g., the Soviet Venera series) are probably more accurate than those from radio occultation (Mariner 5 and 10) data. Scintillation greatly reduces the information obtainable from occultation observations; much of the detail attributed to layering in published profiles is probably due to aliasing of turbulence. This paper gives an approximately correct theoretical treatment that is a substantial improvement over published theories, and shows how a more accurate theory could be constructed. Some methods for a more accurate determination of atmospheric structure are proposed.