ABSTRACT
Multispectral images of the lunar western limb and far side obtained from Galileo reveal the compositional nature of several prominent lunar features and provide new information on lunar evolution. The data reveal that the ejecta from the Orientale impact basin (900 kilometers in diameter) lying outside the Cordillera Mountains was excavated from the crust, not the mantle, and covers pre-Orientale terrain that consisted of both highland materials and relatively large expanses of ancient mare basalts. The inside of the far side South Pole-Aitken basin (>2000 kilometers in diameter) has low albedo, red color, and a relatively high abundance of iron- and magnesium-rich materials. These features suggest that the impact may have penetrated into the deep crust or lunar mantle or that the basin contains ancient mare basalts that were later covered by highlands ejecta.
ABSTRACT
Images of Venus taken at 418 (violet) and 986 [near-infrared (NIR)] nanometers show that the morphology and motions of large-scale features change with depth in the cloud deck. Poleward meridional velocities, seen in both spectral regions, are much reduced in the NIR In the south polar region the markings in the two wavelength bands are strongly anticorrelated. The images follow the changing state of the upper cloud layer downwind of the subsolar point, and the zonal flow field shows a longitudinal periodicity that may be coupled to the formation of large-scale planetary waves. No optical lightning was detected.
ABSTRACT
Satellite observations of the optical emission features in the aurora and nighttime airglow are usually contaminated by scattering from clouds and snow. It is shown here that this contamination can easily be removed when the emission layer is viewed against a surface of known albedo. The effect of the earth's curvature, parallax, and varying image angle are found to be significant but can be removed from the observation.
ABSTRACT
The ISIS-II dual wavelength scanning auroral photometer is designed to map the distribution of auroral emissions at 5577 A and 3914 A over the portion of the dark earth visible to the spacecraft. A combination of internal electronic scanning and the natural orbital and rotational motions of the spacecraft causes a dual wavelength photometer to be scanned systematically across the earth. The data will be reproduced directly in the form of separate pictures representing emissions at each wavelength, which will be used to study the large-scale distribution and morphology of auroras, to study the ratio of 3914-A and 5577-A emissions thought to depend upon the energies of exciting particles), and to compare with results from other instruments on board the spacecraft and on the ground. The Red Line Photometer experiment on the same spacecraft is described in an accompanying paper by Shepherd et al. [Appl. Opt. 12, 1767 (1973)]. The instrument can be thought of as the photometric equivalent of an all-sky color camera which will view the aurora from above instead of below and with a much wider vantage point unobstructed by cloud and haze. In one satellite pass, the instrument will be capable of surveying (in one hemisphere) the entire polar region in which auroras normally occur.
