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Unmanned Spaceflight.com _ Cassini general discussion and science results _ Enceladus SAR

Posted by: Tunglere Dec 2 2011, 02:44 AM

There's a news item on the Cassini website about the Nov. 6, 2011 flyby of Enceladus with synthetic aperture radar imaging, with a link to a video that shows the radar swath (overlaid on a non-radar image) and close-ups of two segments of the swath, as well as a link to one of the close-up segments.

http://saturn.jpl.nasa.gov/news/newsreleases/newsrelease20111201/

Posted by: stevesliva Dec 2 2011, 02:56 AM

Thanks for pointing out the video! I totally missed it when I skimmed the article earlier.

Direct link: http://saturn.jpl.nasa.gov/video/videodetails/?videoID=239

Posted by: ugordan Dec 2 2011, 09:49 AM

Emily's blog says:

QUOTE

Although Cassini has used its RADAR instrument to perform other sorts of observations on Saturn's smaller moons (things like scatterometry and radiometry), until last month it had never performed SAR imaging on any body except Titan.

I sort of remember there was some (distant) SAR on Iapetus (or was it Rhea?) done previously. Am I imagining things?

Posted by: Paolo Dec 2 2011, 12:24 PM

QUOTE (ugordan @ Dec 2 2011, 10:49 AM)

I sort of remember there was some (distant) SAR on Iapetus (or was it Rhea?) done previously. Am I imagining things?

Absolutely. It was Iapetus in September 2006. Cassini made a short low-res swath of the leading hemisphere.

Posted by: machi Dec 2 2011, 02:44 PM

Even NASA page is wrong ("NASA's Cassini spacecraft obtained the first synthetic-aperture radar views of Saturn's moon Enceladus on Nov. 6, 2011.")

Icy Moons SARs (already available at PDS):

253.2007 - Iapetus (CORADR143)
306.2009 - 3× Enceladus (CORADR207)
061.2010 - Rhea (CORADR214)

Posted by: Phil Stooke Dec 2 2011, 04:02 PM

Are there any images made from those observations? I don't recall seeing them.

Phil

Posted by: ugordan Dec 2 2011, 04:17 PM

I think I saw an image somewhere of Iapetus, but for the life of me I can't remember where. It showed that even though the dichotomy is present at optical wavelengths, at radar wavelengths nothing special is seen.

Posted by: machi Dec 2 2011, 04:31 PM

QUOTE (Phil Stooke @ Dec 2 2011, 05:02 PM)

Are there any images made from those observations? I don't recall seeing them.

Phil

Iapetus is http://pds-imaging.jpl.nasa.gov/data/cassini/cassini_orbiter/CORADR_0143/DATA/BIDR/
Enceladus is http://pds-imaging.jpl.nasa.gov/data/cassini/cassini_orbiter/CORADR_0207/DATA/BIDR/
and Rhea is http://pds-imaging.jpl.nasa.gov/data/cassini/cassini_orbiter/CORADR_0214/DATA/BIDR/

"I think I saw an image somewhere of Iapetus, but for the life of me I can't remember where. "

I think, that SAR image of Iapetus was firstly released in special Iapetus CHARM. And even here at UMSF, all these images are somewhere (in some Piotr Masek's post).

EDIT: Browse images for http://pds-imaging.jpl.nasa.gov/data/cassini/cassini_orbiter/CORADR_0207/EXTRAS/BIFQE25S324_D207_E001S01_V02.JPG and http://pds-imaging.jpl.nasa.gov/data/cassini/cassini_orbiter/CORADR_0214/EXTRAS/BIFQE02N171_D214_R001S01_V02.JPG.

Posted by: jasedm Dec 2 2011, 04:45 PM

Wow, that's quite something - 650 metres deep on a 500km diameter moon - equivalent if applied to Earth as a canyon over 16km deep...

Posted by: volcanopele Dec 2 2011, 05:16 PM

Blink between Iapetus SAR and Steve Albers' map: http://pirlwww.lpl.arizona.edu/~perry/RADAR/Iapetus_SAR_blink.gif
Iapetus SAR: http://pirlwww.lpl.arizona.edu/~perry/RADAR/Iapetus_SAR_simp_8ppd.png

Posted by: Phil Stooke Dec 2 2011, 05:28 PM

Now I remember! Too many things to remember these days...

Phil