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Saturn's icy satellites and rings investigated by Cassini-VIMS: III - Radial compositional variability

Saturn's icy satellites and rings investigated by Cassini-VIMS: III - Radial compositional variability

Publication date: 16 August 2012

Authors: Filacchione, G. et al.

Journal: Icarus
Volume: 220
Issue: 2
Page: 1064-1096
Year: 2012

Copyright: Elsevier Inc.

In the last few years Cassini-VIMS, the Visible and Infrared Mapping Spectrometer, returned to us a comprehensive view of the Saturn's icy satellites and rings. After having analyzed the satellites' spectral properties (Filacchione, G., Capaccioni, F., McCord, T.B., Coradini, A., Cerroni, P., Bellucci, G., Tosi, F., D'Aversa, E., Formisano, V., Brown, R.H., Baines, K.H., Bibring, J.P., Buratti, B.J., Clark, R.N., Combes, M., Cruikshank, D.P., Drossart, P., Jaumann, R., Langevin, Y., Matson, D.L., Mennella, V., Nelson, R.M., Nicholson, P.D., Sicardy, B., Sotin, C., Hansen, G., Hibbitts, K., Showalter, M., Newman, S. [2007]. Icarus 186, 259-290, paper I) and their distribution across the satellites' hemispheres (Filacchione, G., Capaccioni, F., Clark, R.N., Cuzzi, J.N., Cruikshank, D.P., Coradini, A., Cerroni, P., Nicholson, P.D., McCord, T.B., Brown, R.H., Buratti, B.J., Tosi, F., Nelson, R.M., Jaumann, R., Stephan, K. [2010]. Icarus 206, 507-523, paper II), we proceed in this paper to investigate the radial variability of icy satellites (principal and minor) and main rings average spectral properties. This analysis is done by using 2264 disk-integrated observations of the satellites and a 12×700 pixels-wide rings radial mosaic acquired with a spatial resolution of about 125 km/pixel. Using different VIS and IR spectral indicators, e.g. spectral slopes and band depths, we perform a comparative analysis of these data aimed to measure the distribution of water ice and red contaminant materials across Saturn's system. The average surface regolith grain sizes are estimated with different indicators through comparison with laboratory and synthetic spectra. [Abstract abbreviated due to character limitations.]

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