Continuum radiation at Uranus
- Univ. of Iowa, Iowa City (United States)
- NASA Goddard Space Flight Center, Greenbelt, MD (United States)
Uranus has proven to be a radio source of remarkable complexity with as many as six distinctly different types of emission. One Uranian radio emission which has thus far escaped attention is an analog of continuum radiation at Earth, Jupiter, and Saturn. The emission is found to be propagating in the ordinary mode in the range of one to a few kHz on the inbound leg of the Voyager 2 encounter, shortly after the magnetopause crossing. The continuum radiation spectrum at Uranus also includes bands with frequencies as high as 12 kHz or greater on both the inbound and outbound legs. The Uranian continuum radiation is notably weak, making it more like that detected at Saturn than the extremely intense Jovian continuum radiation. The Uranian emission shows some evidence for narrow-band components lying in the same frequency regime as the continuum, completing the analogy with the other planets, which also show narrow-band components superimposed on the continuum spectrum. The authors argue that the low intensity of the Uranian continuum is most likely related to the lack of a density cavity within the Uranian magnetosphere that is deep relative to the solar wind plasma density.
- OSTI ID:
- 5029331
- Journal Information:
- Journal of Geophysical Research; (United States), Journal Name: Journal of Geophysical Research; (United States) Vol. 95:A2; ISSN 0148-0227; ISSN JGREA
- Country of Publication:
- United States
- Language:
- English
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Related Subjects
71 CLASSICAL AND QUANTUM MECHANICS
GENERAL PHYSICS
ATMOSPHERES
EARTH PLANET
ELECTROMAGNETIC RADIATION
JUPITER PLANET
PLANETARY ATMOSPHERES
PLANETARY MAGNETOSPHERES
PLANETS
PLASMA DENSITY
RADIATIONS
RADIOWAVE RADIATION
SATURN PLANET
SOLAR ACTIVITY
SOLAR WIND
SPACE VEHICLES
URANUS PLANET
VEHICLES
VOYAGER SPACE PROBES
WAVE PROPAGATION