Surface and Airborne Evidence for Plumes and Winds on Triton
Abstract
Aeolian features on Triton that were imaged during the Voyager Mission have been grouped. The term "aeolian feature" is broadly defined as features produced by or blown by the wind, including surface and airborne materials. Observations of the latitudinal distributions of the features probably associated with current activity (known plumes, crescent streaks, fixed terminator clouds, and limb haze with overshoot) all occur from latitude -37° to latitude -62°. Likely indicators of previous activity (dark surface streaks) occur from latitude -5° to -70°, but are most abundant from -15° to -45°, generally north of currently active features. Those indicators which give information on wind direction and speed have been measured. Wind direction is a function of altitude. The predominant direction of the surface wind streaks is found to be between 40° and 80° measured clockwise from north. The average orientation of streaks in the northeast quadrant is 59°. Winds at 1- to 3- kilometer altitude are eastward, while those at >8 kilometers blow west.
Additional Information
© 1990 American Association for the Advancement of Science. Received 9 August 1990; accepted 24 September 1990. This research was carried out by the Jet Propulsion Laboratory, California Institute of Technology, under a contract with the National Aeronautics and Space Administration. The authors thank the Voyager Flight Team for their careful implementation of a complicated imaging observation.Additional details
- Eprint ID
- 37177
- DOI
- 10.1126/science.250.4979.421
- Resolver ID
- CaltechAUTHORS:20130227-110945490
- NASA
- Created
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2013-02-28Created from EPrint's datestamp field
- Updated
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2021-11-09Created from EPrint's last_modified field
- Caltech groups
- Division of Geological and Planetary Sciences