The Effect of Diurnal Variations on Ionospheric Radio Occultations
Abstract
Radio occultations are a powerful technique for the study of atmospheres and ionospheres by planetary spacecraft. For missions to the outer solar system, the occultations always probe the terminator region of the planet. The analysis of radio occultations typically assumes symmetry along the ray path in the horizontal direction about the tangent point. While this is an excellent assumption for the neutral atmosphere where the scale length of horizontal gradients is large, it is suspect for the ionosphere where electron densities decrease rapidly from day to night. Diurnal variations in peak electron density are often several orders of magnitude and may occur over a region of a few degrees. We investigate the consequences of diurnal variations on ionospheric occultations with a ray tracing calculation for the angular deflection and frequency residual of the radio wave. The calculations are based on photochemical/diffusion models for the ionospheres of Saturn and Titan. Differences from analysis based on the assumption of horizontal symmetry are most pronounced in the bottom side ionosphere where chemical time constants are short.
- Publication:
-
AAS/Division for Planetary Sciences Meeting Abstracts #48
- Pub Date:
- October 2016
- Bibcode:
- 2016DPS....4840302Y