Detection of Solar Rotational Variability in the LYRA 190 - 222 nm Spectral Band

We analyze the variability of the spectral solar irradiance during the period from 7 January, 2010 until 20 January, 2010 as measured by the Herzberg channel (190-222 nm) of the Large Yield RAdiometer (LYRA) onboard PROBA2. In this period of time observations by the LYRA nominal unit experienced degradation and the signal produced by the Herzberg channel frequently jumped from one level to another. Both these factors significantly complicates the analysis. We present the algorithm which allowed us to extract the solar variability from the LYRA data and compare the results with SORCE/SOLSTICE measurements and with modeling based on the Code for the Solar Irradiance (COSI)

Eclipses observed by LYRA - a sensitive tool to test the models for the solar irradiance

We analyze the light curves of the recent solar eclipses measured by the Herzberg channel (200-220 nm) of the Large Yield RAdiometer (LYRA) onboard PROBA-2. The measurements allow us to accurately retrieve the center- to-limb variations (CLV) of the solar brightness. The formation height of the radiation depends on the observing angle so the examination of the CLV provide information about a broad range of heights in the solar atmosphere. We employ the 1D NLTE radiative transfer COde for Solar Irradiance (COSI) to model the measured light curves and corresponding CLV dependencies. The modeling is used to test and constrain the existing 1D models of the solar atmosphere, e.g. the temperature structure of the photosphere and the treatment of the pseudo- continuum opacities in the Herzberg continuum range. We show that COSI can accurately reproduce not only the irradiance from the entire solar disk, but also the measured CLV. It hence can be used as a reliable tool for modeling the variability of the spectral solar irradiance.Comment: 19 pages, 9 figures, Solar Physic

Shallow crustal composition of Mercury as revealed by spectral properties and geological units of two impact craters

We have performed a combined geological and spectral analysis of two impact craters on Mercury: the 15 km diameter Waters crater (106°W; 9°S) and the 62.3 km diameter Kuiper crater (30°W; 11°S). Using the Mercury Dual Imaging System (MDIS) Narrow Angle Camera (NAC) dataset we defined and mapped several units for each crater and for an external reference area far from any impact related deposits. For each of these units we extracted all spectra from the MESSENGER Atmosphere and Surface Composition Spectrometer (MASCS) Visible-InfraRed Spectrograph (VIRS) applying a first order photometric correction. For all the mapped units, we analyzed the spectral slope in two wavelength ranges, 350-450 nm and 450-650 nm, and the absolute reflectance in the 700-750 nm range. Normalized spectra of Waters crater display a generally bluer spectral slope than the external reference area over both wavelength windows. Normalized spectra of Kuiper crater generally display a redder slope than the external reference area in the 350-450 nm window, while they display a bluer slope than the external reference area in the 450-650 nm wavelength range. The combined use of geological and spectral analyses enables reconstruction of the local scale stratigraphy beneath the two craters, providing insight into the properties of the shallower crust of Mercury. Kuiper crater, being ~4 times larger than Waters crater, exposes deeper layers with distinctive composition, while the result for Waters crater might indicate substantial compositional homogeneity with the surrounding intercrater plains, though we cannot exclude the occurrence of horizontal compositional heterogeneities in the shallow sub-surface

Making Sense of 2.5 Million Surface Reflectance Spectra of Mercury from MESSENGER

The Mercury Atmospheric and Surface and Composition Spectrometer (MASCS) on the MErcury Surface, Space ENvironment, GEochemistry, and Ranging (MESSENGER) spacecraft has mapped the surface of Mercury on a global basis during its one-year primary orbital mission and the first third of its extended mission, producing ~2.5 million spectra from March 2011 to July 2012. The primary challenge to analyzing this dataset is to cope with its large size. In earlier studies of MASCS data, we combined several approaches, ranging from principal component analysis (PCA) to unsupervised cluster analysis and regridding to global and local fixed grids. Each of those techniques provided insight into spectral variations for different volumes of data, but each was quickly overcome by the growing dataset. The most recent version of our data analysis procedure uses PostgreSQL, a type of database management that controls the creation, integrity, maintenance, and use of a database. It embeds a high-level query language, which greatly simplifies database organization as well as retrieval and presentation of database information. We set up a data pipeline to update automatically the MASCS data, read them from the NASA Planetary Data System format, regrid the data to a common grid length, and store all information in the database. All data are then readily available to any authorized user in our network. We are working on a library to access the data directly from within our analysis software, and some preliminary functions have been implemented. As an example, the calculation of a parameter representing the database takes 2 s even for the full dataset of 2.5 million entries. It is thus straightforward to create and analyze rapidly the data, as for example the distribution of normalized radiance at a fixed wavelength. The new methodology provides facilities for controlling data access, enforcing data integrity, managing concurrency control, and recovering the database after a failure and restoring it from backup files, as well as maintaining database security. As an example, a simple query on the volume of data results in 2,476,048 spectra in 700 ms. Moreover, we use PostGIS to add support for geographic objects in a geographic information system (GIS) and to extend the database language with functions to create and manipulate geographic objects. A typical application is the definition of a large number of regions of interest (ROIs) and the search for all data points falling within each ROI. This facility may be used to extract spectral signatures specific to user-defined geological units in a few seconds and to explore the properties of the data from the different ROIs allowing quick analysis of the spectral characteristics of Mercury. We have successfully tested remote access to the database with a GIS visualization system, and we have created data visualization products that layer camera data and real-time-queried MASCS data