|
|||||
|
|
Buoyancy waves in Pluto’s high atmosphere: Implications for stellar occultations |
|
| Authors: | W.B. Hubbard D.W. McCarthy S.D. Benecchi J.L. Elliot A.A.S. Gulbis |
| Affiliation: | 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 |
| 本文献已被 ScienceDirect 等数据库收录！ | |