Spatial distribution of Io’s volcanic activity from near-IR adaptive optics observations on 100 nights in 2013–2015
•The spatial distribution of volcanic activity on Io in 2013–2015 is analyzed.•Bright eruptions occur at higher typical latitudes than persistent hot spots.•A string of bright eruptions occurred in an eastward progression in the south.•The large-scale features of the observed spatial pattern match G...
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Veröffentlicht in: | Icarus (New York, N.Y. 1962) N.Y. 1962), 2016-12, Vol.280, p.405-414 |
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Zusammenfassung: | •The spatial distribution of volcanic activity on Io in 2013–2015 is analyzed.•Bright eruptions occur at higher typical latitudes than persistent hot spots.•A string of bright eruptions occurred in an eastward progression in the south.•The large-scale features of the observed spatial pattern match Galileo results.•No current tidal heating end-members provide a close fit to the eruption locations.
The extreme and time-variable volcanic activity on Jupiter’s moon Io is the result of periodic tidal forcing. The spatial distribution of Io’s surface heat flux provides an important constraint on models for tidal heat dissipation, yielding information on interior properties and on the depth at which the tidal heat is primarily dissipated. We analyze the spatial distribution of 48 hot spots based on more than 400 total hot spot detections in adaptive optics images taken on 100 nights in 2013–2015 (data presented in de Kleer and de Pater [2016] Time variability of Io’s volcanic activity from near-IR adaptive optics 13 observations on 100 nights in 2013–2015). We present full surface maps of Io at multiple near-infrared wavelengths for three epochs during this time period, and show that the longitudinal distribution of hot spots has not changed significantly since the Galileo mission.
We find that hot spots that are persistently active at moderate intensities tend to occur at different latitudes/longitudes than those that exhibit sudden brightening events characterized by high peak intensities and subsequent decay phases. While persistent hot spots are located primarily between ± 30°N, hot spots exhibiting bright eruption events occur primarily between 40° and 65° in both the northern and southern hemispheres. In addition, while persistent hot spots occur preferentially on the leading hemisphere, all bright eruptions were detected on the trailing hemisphere, despite the comparable longitudinal coverage of our observations to both hemispheres. A subset of the bright hot spots which are not intense enough to qualify as outburst eruptions resemble outbursts in terms of temporal evolution and spatial distribution, and may be outbursts whose peak emission went unobserved, or else scaled-down versions of the same phenomenon. A statistical analysis finds that large eruptions are more spatially clustered and occur at higher latitudes than 95% of simulated datasets that assume that eruptions occur at random and independent locations.
The preferential occurrence of bright, vi |
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ISSN: | 0019-1035 1090-2643 |
DOI: | 10.1016/j.icarus.2016.06.018 |