HR: 16:45h
AN: SA24A-06 INVITED     [Abstracts]
TI: Gravity Wave Heating and Cooling in Saturn's Thermosphere
AU: * Hickey, M P
EM: michael.hickey@erau.edu
AF: Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University, Dept. Physical Sciences 600 S. Clyde-Morris Blvd., Daytona Beach, FL 32114 United States
AU: Schubert, G
EM: schubert@ucla.edu
AF: University of California, Los Angeles, Depart. of Earth and Space Sciences Institute of Geophysics and Planetary Physics, Los Angeles, CA 90095 United States
AU: Walterscheid, R L
EM: Richard.Walterscheid@eumetsat.int
AF: NOAA Representative to EUMETSAT, Permanent affiliation: The Aerospace Corporation , National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration EUMETSAT Germany, Darmstadt, D-64295 Germany AB: Recently published simulations obtained using a global circulation model demonstrate that the currently understood heat sources are unable to explain the observed temperature of Saturn's thermosphere. Those simulations provided the globally averaged altitude variation of the heat source required to reconcile observations with theory. Thus, the missing heat source, which was assumed to be due to dissipating gravity waves, was constrained by the modeling. Using this constraint and a full-wave model previously used to examine the propagation and dissipation of acoustic-gravity waves in the thermospheres of Earth and Jupiter, we simulate gravity wave propagation and dissipation in Saturn's thermosphere. A broad range of wave parameters (periods, horizontal wavelengths and energy fluxes) is considered. These simulations reveal those parts of the wave spectrum that are likely to be important to the temperature of Saturn's thermosphere.
DE: 3384 Waves and tides
SC: SPA-Aeronomy [SA]
MN: 2005 Joint Assembly