Mercury’s Sodium Exosphere from Maui AEOS & Tohoku Observatory June 2006
AEOS Telescope + Image-Slicer/ Spectrograph Data Reduction and Results for June 8, 2006
IMAGE SLICER DETAIL FIRST ROW SECOND ROWTHIRD ROWFORTH ROW ARROWS POINT TO FIRST COLUMN COLUMN #1, ROW #1 2.4 mm 2.8 mm
3.7-meter telescope with adaptive optics Scale: 0.5 arc-seconds per fiber 1-minute exposures Twilight not significant Calibrated with standard stars June 8: 10 data cubes June 9: 8 data cubes AEOS + Image-Slicer Spectrograph: Observing parameters
Mercury Flat Field Sodium Lamp AEOS + Image-Slicer Spectrograph: Raw Data
Spectrally un-warp the images Choose wavelength (row) Fiber brightness = sum of 5 pixels AEOS + Image-Slicer Spectrograph: Image Reconstruction Method
Mercury Flat Field AEOS + Image-Slicer Spectrograph: Remove Spectral Curvature
AEOS + Image-Slicer Spectrograph: Locate Each Fiber at Each Wavelength
AEOS Reconstructed Images Mercury reconstructed Flat field reconstructed Final Image (continuum) Each raw image yields a data cube of 1024 images
Ganymede spectrum = solar spectrum without Na emission (Ganymede spectrum) x (Merc. Image) = artificial data cube of Mercury w/o Na Subtract artificial data cube from real data cube to yield Na emission AEOS + Image-Slicer Spectrograph: Subtraction of surface-reflected solar spec.
- = Mercury at D 1 +D 2 Merc. x Gany. at D 1 +D 2 Na Exosphere
AEOS June 8, 2006 (V R =10.0 km/s away)
Tohoku Observatory + Image-Slicer/ Spectrograph Data Reduction and Results for June 15, 2006
16-inch Meade Same image-slicer/spectrograph 3 arc-seconds per fiber 2-minute exposures Dates: –June 14: 5 data cubes –June 15: 5 data cubes –June 17: 9 data cubes –June 18: 8 data cubes Tohoku Observatory, Maui + Image-Slicer/Spectrograph: Observing parameters
Tohoku Maui June 15, 2006 (V R =8.6 km/s away)