Coordinated 1996 HST and IRTF Imaging of Neptune and Triton: I. Observations, Navigation, and Differential Deconvolution

✍ Scribed by L.A. Sromovsky; P.M. Fry; K.H. Baines; S.S. Limaye; G.S. Orton; T.E. Dowling

• Publisher: Elsevier Science
• Year: 2001
• Tongue: English
• Weight: 542 KB
• Volume: 149
• Category: Article
• ISSN: 0019-1035
• DOI: 10.1006/icar.2000.6562

✦ Synopsis

On 13-14 August 1996, we carried out the first coordinated contemporaneous imaging of Neptune, using the Hubble Space Telescope (HST) Wide Field Planetary Camera 2 and the NASA Infrared Telescope Facility (IRTF) NSFCAM InSb camera to obtain high spatial resolution absolutely calibrated imagery at wavelengths from 0.2 to 2.5 µm. We used nine HST orbits to provide unique dynamical coverage of a single rotation of Neptune. During three orbits we obtained virtually simultaneous groundbased images. These data provide an extended range of wavelengths that sample the Rayleigh scattering regime, both strong and weak methane bands, and strong near-infrared hydrogen collision-induced opacity bands, from which strong constraints can be obtained on the properties of Neptune's cloud features. We developed very precise navigation techniques, which were required to achieve colocation of the observations from these different observatories. Technique advances include compensating for limb profile distortions by bright cloud