Ultraviolet Observations of Comet Hale–Bopp (C/1995 O1) by the UARS SOLSTICE

✍ Scribed by Thomas N. Woods; Paul D. Feldman; Gary J. Rottman

• Publisher: Elsevier Science
• Year: 2000
• Tongue: English
• Weight: 63 KB
• Volume: 144
• Category: Article
• ISSN: 0019-1035
• DOI: 10.1006/icar.1999.6262

✦ Synopsis

Ultraviolet spectra of Comet Hale-Bopp (C/1995 O1) were obtained near its perihelion from the SOLar-STellar Irradiance Comparison Experiment (SOLSTICE) on the Upper Atmosphere Research Satellite (UARS). These measurements in March and April 1997 are used to derive water and carbon production rates from the OH and C emissions, respectively. Because the OH coma is smaller than the 1.5 • field of view (FOV) of SOLSTICE, a water production rate of 1.3 × 10 31 s -1 is determined without the use of a coma model. With the C coma being larger than the SOLSTICE's FOV, a coma model is used to estimate a FOV scaling factor in deriving a C production rate of 2.9 × 10 30 s -1 . Both the water and carbon production rates are in good agreement with the rates derived from other UV and radio observations of Comet Hale-Bopp near the same time. On April 16 and 17, 1997, there was an enhancement of the CII 1335 Å emission by a factor of 3, apparently caused by an increase in the solar wind flux.