Details

Autor(en) / Beteiligte

• Tyler, G. L.
• Marouf, E. A.
• Wood, G. E.

Titel

Radio occultation of Jupiter's ring: Bounds on optical depth and particle size and a comparison with infrared and optical results

Ist Teil von

• Journal of Geophysical Research, 1981-09, Vol.86 (A10), p.8699-8703

Ort / Verlag

Blackwell Publishing Ltd

Erscheinungsjahr

1981

Beschreibungen/Notizen

• The Jovian ring is not detectable in Voyager 1 radio occultation data, setting the bounds on its optical thickness of 2 × 10 −4 and 5 × 10−4 at 13‐ and 3.6‐cm wavelengths, respectively. Comparison of results at radio, infrared, and optical wavelengths suggests a population density that either falls more rapidly than the inverse square of the linear size or is sharply bounded in maximum particle size. A fragmentation power law, ∼ap for amin <a <amax, where a is the particle radius, and power index p between −3 and −4 lead to a minimum size estimate amin ≃1–2 µm. A specific model which is consistent with all observations consists of a power law distribution of lossless or very slightly absorbent Mie scatterers with refractive index near 1.62, power law index p approximately −3.5, and a minimum particle size or about 1.5 µm. In this model the upper size limit amax is not critical, provided that it is greater than about 4 µm.