Diffraction-limited Mid-infrared Integral Field Spectroscopy of Io's Volcanic Activity with ALES on the Large Binocular Telescope
Abstract
The Arizona Lenslet for Exoplanet Spectroscopy (ALES) is an enhancement to the Large Binocular Telescope's mid-infrared imager, LMIRcam, that permits low-resolution (R~20) spectroscopy between 2.8 and 4.2 μm of every diffraction-limited resolution element in a 2.5"x2.5" field-of-view on a 2048x2048 HAWAII-2RG 5.2 μm-cutoff array. The 1" disk of Io, dotted with powerful self-luminous volcanic eruptions, provides an ideal target for ALES, where the single 8.4-meter aperture diffraction-limited scale for Io at opposition ranges from 240 kilometers (80 milliarcseconds) at 2.8 μm to 360 kilometers (120 milliarcseconds) at 4.2 μm. ALES provides the capability to assess the color temperature of each volcanic thermal emission site as well as map broadband absorbers such as SO2 frost. A monitoring campaign in the Spring 2017 semester provided two global snapshots of Io's volcanic activity with ALES as well as characterization of a new brightening episode at Loki Patera over four epochs between January and May 2017.
- Publication:
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AAS/Division for Planetary Sciences Meeting Abstracts #49
- Pub Date:
- October 2017
- Bibcode:
- 2017DPS....4940702S