Observations from Cassini VIMS and ISS show localized but extensive surface brightenings in the wake of the 2010 September cloudburst. Four separate areas, all at similar latitude, show similar changes: Yalaing Terra, Hetpet Regio, Concordia Regio, and Adiri. Our analysis shows a general pattern to the time-sequence of surface changes: after the cloudburst the areas darken for months, then brighten for a year before reverting to their original spectrum. From the rapid reversion timescale we infer that the process driving the brightening owes to a fine-grained solidified surface layer. The specific chemical composition of such solid layer remains unknown. Evaporative cooling of wetted terrain may play a role in the generation of the layer, or it may result from a physical grain-sorting process.
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:arizona.edu/oai:arizona.openrepository.com:10150/610233 |
| Date | January 2013 |
| Creators | Barnes, Jason, Buratti, Bonnie, Turtle, Elizabeth, Bow, Jacob, Dalba, Paul, Perry, Jason, Brown, Robert, Rodriguez, Sebastien, Mouelic, Stephane Le, Baines, Kevin, Sotin, Christophe, Lorenz, Ralph, Malaska, Michael, McCord, Thomas, Clark, Roger, Jaumann, Ralf, Hayne, Paul, Nicholson, Philip, Soderblom, Jason, Soderblom, Laurence |
| Contributors | Department of Physics, University of Idaho, Moscow, Idaho, 83844-0903 USA, Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Caltech, Pasadena, California, 91109 USA, University of California, Berkeley, California, 94720 USA, Bear Fight Institute, Winthrop, Washington, 98862 USA, Lunar and Planetary Laboratory, University of Arizona, Tucson, Arizona, 85721 USA, United States Geological Survey, Denver, Colorado, 80225 USA, Division of Geological and Planetary Sciences, California Institute of Technology, Pasadena, CA 91126, USA, Laboratoire de Planétologie et Géodynamique, CNRS UMR6112, Université de Nantes, Nantes, France, Department of Astronomy, Cornell University, Ithaca, NY 14853 USA, Laboratoire AIM, Université Paris Diderot / CEA Irfu / CNRS, Centre de l’orme des Mérisiers, bât. 709, 91191 Gif/Yvette Cedex, France, Astrogeology Division, United States Geological Survey, Flagstaff, Arizona 86001, USA, DLR, Institute of Planetary Research, 12489 Berlin, Germany, Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory, Laurel, MD 20723, USA, Department of Earth and Atmospheric Science, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, MA 02141, USA, Space Science and Engineering Center, University of Wisconsin, Madison, WI 53706, USA |
| Publisher | BioMed Central |
| Source Sets | University of Arizona |
| Language | English |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | Article |
| Rights | © 2013 Barnes et al.; licensee Springer. This is an Open Access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0) |
| Relation | http://www.planetary-science.com/content/2/1/1 |
Page generated in 0.0034 seconds