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Earth-based detection of Uranus' aurorae

Authors :
N. André
Graziella Branduardi-Raymont
Henrik Melin
Mathieu Barthelemy
Laurent Lamy
M. K. Dougherty
Nicholas Achilleos
Kirk C. Hansen
Philippe Zarka
Gilda E. Ballester
Jonathan D. Nichols
Stanley W. H. Cowley
Patrick Guio
R. Prangé
J. Aboudarham
Tom Stallard
John Clarke
Randy Gladstone
Baptiste Cecconi
Source :
Geophysical Research Letters. 39
Publication Year :
2012
Publisher :
American Geophysical Union (AGU), 2012.

Abstract

[1] This study is based on multi-planet multi-wavelength observations of planetary aurorae throughout the heliosphere, acquired along the propagation path of a series of consecutive interplanetary shocks. The underlying motivation to track the shocks was to increase the probability of detection of auroral emissions at Uranus. Despite several Earth-based attempts in the past few years, at Far-UV (FUV) and Near-IR (NIR) wavelengths, such emissions have never been unambiguously re-observed since their discovery by Voyager 2 in 1986. Here, we present a campaign of FUV observations of Uranus obtained in November 2011 with the Hubble Space Telescope (HST) during active solar wind conditions. We positively identify auroral signatures in several of these HST measurements, together with some obtained in 1998, representing the first images of Uranus' aurorae. We analyze their characteristics and discuss the implications for the asymmetric Uranian magnetosphere and its highly variable interaction with the solar wind flow from near-solstice (1986) to near-equinox (2011) configurations.

Details

ISSN :
00948276
Volume :
39
Database :
OpenAIRE
Journal :
Geophysical Research Letters
Accession number :
edsair.doi...........330c16702b2e3546c124e80dbf214667
Full Text :
https://doi.org/10.1029/2012gl051312