_version_ 1866917634834956288
author Yuan, Ye
Zhang, Chen
Li, Fan
Chen, Jian
Fu, Yanning
Bai, Chunhai
Gao, Xing
Wang, Yong
Zhong, Tuhong
Gao, Yixing
Wang, Liang
Chen, Donghua
Zhang, Yixing
Zhang, Yang
Xie, Wenpeng
Zhang, Shupi
Liu, Ding
Cao, Jun
Yin, Xiangdong
Mo, Xiaojun
Liu, Jing
Han, Xinru
Liu, Tong
Chen, Yuqiang
Gao, Zhendong
Zeng, Xiang
Niu, Guihua
Zheng, Xiansheng
Lin, Yuchen
Ye, Peiyu
Liang, Weitang
Zhu, Chengcheng
Hu, Zhiqiang
He, Jianguo
Zhang, Wei
Chen, Yue
Cheng, Zhuo
Zhang, Yang
Sun, Tianrui
Guo, Chenyang
Lu, Yue
Lin, Jiajun
Tan, Wei
Zhou, Jia
Xu, Jun
He, Jun
Ye, Jiahui
Li, Delai
Zhang, Shuai
Qu, Qingyue
author_facet Yuan, Ye
Zhang, Chen
Li, Fan
Chen, Jian
Fu, Yanning
Bai, Chunhai
Gao, Xing
Wang, Yong
Zhong, Tuhong
Gao, Yixing
Wang, Liang
Chen, Donghua
Zhang, Yixing
Zhang, Yang
Xie, Wenpeng
Zhang, Shupi
Liu, Ding
Cao, Jun
Yin, Xiangdong
Mo, Xiaojun
Liu, Jing
Han, Xinru
Liu, Tong
Chen, Yuqiang
Gao, Zhendong
Zeng, Xiang
Niu, Guihua
Zheng, Xiansheng
Lin, Yuchen
Ye, Peiyu
Liang, Weitang
Zhu, Chengcheng
Hu, Zhiqiang
He, Jianguo
Zhang, Wei
Chen, Yue
Cheng, Zhuo
Zhang, Yang
Sun, Tianrui
Guo, Chenyang
Lu, Yue
Lin, Jiajun
Tan, Wei
Zhou, Jia
Xu, Jun
He, Jun
Ye, Jiahui
Li, Delai
Zhang, Shuai
Qu, Qingyue
contents The atmosphere of Triton was probed directly by observing a ground-based stellar occultation on 6 October 2022. This rare event yielded 23 positive light curves collected from 13 separate observation stations contributing to our campaign. The significance of this event lies in its potential to directly validate the modest pressure fluctuation on Triton, a phenomenon not definitively verified by previous observations, including only five stellar occultations, and the Voyager 2 radio occultation in 1989. Using an approach consistent with a comparable study, we precisely determined a surface pressure of $14.07_{-0.13}^{+0.21}~\mathrm{μbar}$ in 2022. This new pressure rules out any significant monotonic variation in pressure between 2017 and 2022 through direct observations, as it is in alignment with the 2017 value. Additionally, both the pressures in 2017 and 2022 align with the 1989 value. This provides further support for the conclusion drawn from the previous volatile transport model simulation, which is consistent with the observed alignment between the pressures in 1989 and 2017; that is to say, the pressure fluctuation is modest. Moreover, this conclusion suggests the existence of a northern polar cap extended down to at least $45^\circ$N$-60^\circ$N and the presence of nitrogen between $30^\circ$S and $0^\circ$.
format Preprint
id arxiv_https___arxiv_org_abs_2403_09464
institution arXiv
publishDate 2024
record_format arxiv
spellingShingle New constraints on Triton's atmosphere from the 6 October 2022 stellar occultation
Yuan, Ye
Zhang, Chen
Li, Fan
Chen, Jian
Fu, Yanning
Bai, Chunhai
Gao, Xing
Wang, Yong
Zhong, Tuhong
Gao, Yixing
Wang, Liang
Chen, Donghua
Zhang, Yixing
Zhang, Yang
Xie, Wenpeng
Zhang, Shupi
Liu, Ding
Cao, Jun
Yin, Xiangdong
Mo, Xiaojun
Liu, Jing
Han, Xinru
Liu, Tong
Chen, Yuqiang
Gao, Zhendong
Zeng, Xiang
Niu, Guihua
Zheng, Xiansheng
Lin, Yuchen
Ye, Peiyu
Liang, Weitang
Zhu, Chengcheng
Hu, Zhiqiang
He, Jianguo
Zhang, Wei
Chen, Yue
Cheng, Zhuo
Zhang, Yang
Sun, Tianrui
Guo, Chenyang
Lu, Yue
Lin, Jiajun
Tan, Wei
Zhou, Jia
Xu, Jun
He, Jun
Ye, Jiahui
Li, Delai
Zhang, Shuai
Qu, Qingyue
Earth and Planetary Astrophysics
The atmosphere of Triton was probed directly by observing a ground-based stellar occultation on 6 October 2022. This rare event yielded 23 positive light curves collected from 13 separate observation stations contributing to our campaign. The significance of this event lies in its potential to directly validate the modest pressure fluctuation on Triton, a phenomenon not definitively verified by previous observations, including only five stellar occultations, and the Voyager 2 radio occultation in 1989. Using an approach consistent with a comparable study, we precisely determined a surface pressure of $14.07_{-0.13}^{+0.21}~\mathrm{μbar}$ in 2022. This new pressure rules out any significant monotonic variation in pressure between 2017 and 2022 through direct observations, as it is in alignment with the 2017 value. Additionally, both the pressures in 2017 and 2022 align with the 1989 value. This provides further support for the conclusion drawn from the previous volatile transport model simulation, which is consistent with the observed alignment between the pressures in 1989 and 2017; that is to say, the pressure fluctuation is modest. Moreover, this conclusion suggests the existence of a northern polar cap extended down to at least $45^\circ$N$-60^\circ$N and the presence of nitrogen between $30^\circ$S and $0^\circ$.
title New constraints on Triton's atmosphere from the 6 October 2022 stellar occultation
topic Earth and Planetary Astrophysics
url https://arxiv.org/abs/2403.09464