Resonance scattering by sodium in mercury's atmosphere I. The effect of phase and atmospheric smearing
- 1 January 1988
- journal article
- Published by American Geophysical Union (AGU) in Geophysical Research Letters
- Vol. 15 (1) , 80-83
- https://doi.org/10.1029/gl015i001p00080
Abstract
We present the dependence of the intensity in the sodium D1 and D2 lines on the planetary phase and position on the disk. Theoretical intensities are convolved with an atmospheric point spread function with FWHM of 0″.5 and 2″.0 for planetary phases 60° and 90°. We show that although the absolute intensities are extremely dependent on seeing, the I(D2)/I(D1) ratio remains a reliable indicator of column abundance regardless of the seeing function. For a uniform distribution of sodium, limb brightening will be apparent for a seeing disk with FWHM of 0″.5 but will not be apparent for a FWHM of 2″.0.Keywords
This publication has 7 references indexed in Scilit:
- Bidirectional reflectance spectroscopy: 3. Correction for macroscopic roughnessPublished by Elsevier ,2002
- Variation of sodium on mercury with solar radiation pressureIcarus, 1987
- The sodium exosphere and magnetosphere of MercuryGeophysical Research Letters, 1986
- Discovery of Sodium in the Atmosphere of MercuryScience, 1985
- Concise and accurate solutions for Chandrasekhar's X and Y functionsThe Astrophysical Journal, 1982
- Angle-dependent frequency redistribution in a plane-parallel medium - External source caseThe Astrophysical Journal, 1980
- Resonance scattering by atmospheric sodium—IV abundance of sodium in twilightJournal of Atmospheric and Terrestrial Physics, 1958