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Buoyancy waves in Pluto’s high atmosphere: Implications for stellar occultations |
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| Authors: | WB Hubbard DW McCarthy SD Benecchi JL Elliot AAS Gulbis |
| Institution: | a Lunar and Planetary Laboratory, The University of Arizona, 1629 E. University Blvd., Tucson, AZ 85721, USA b Steward Observatory, The University of Arizona, 933 N. Cherry Ave., Tucson, AZ 85721, USA c Space Telescope Science Institute, 3700 San Martin Drive, Baltimore, MD 21218, USA d Earth, Atmospheric and Planetary Sciences, MIT, 77 Massachusetts Ave., Cambridge, MA 02139, USA e Physics, MIT, 77 Massachusetts Ave., Cambridge, MA 02139, USA f Southern African Astronomical Observatory, P.O. Box 9, Observatory, 7935 Cape Town, South Africa |
| 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. |
| Keywords: | Atmospheres dynamics Occultations Pluto atmosphere |
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