Voyager 2 Radio Occultation of Triton revisited using modernized analysis tools

In 1989 the Voyager 2 spacecraft performed a flyby of the Neptune system. In particular, a radio occultation of Triton’s ionosphere was performed on 25 August 1989. Results from this occultation experiment were published in Science by Tyler et al., and the atmospheric profiles of Triton were estimated via analysis of the real-time tracking and monitoring systems data at time resolutions of about 1 second.

In recent years, thanks to an increase in the computational power of microprocessors and an expansion in their fields of application, there has been a surge in the development of optimal estimators for stochastic signals. In this context, we present a re-analysis of the radiometric data received by the Voyager 2 spacecraft during its radio occultation experiment of Triton. Using one of the latest algorithms developed in the field of signal parameters estimation, we use the radiometric measurements received during the ingress and egress phases of the mission to accurately reconstruct the sky frequency, as received by the DSS-43 antenna at the time of occultation. In particular, by performing spectral interpolation and tuning the processing parameters, we increased the frequency resolution and detection threshold around the ingress and egress epochs to maximize the scientific return from the radiometric data collected over 30 years ago.

Since Voyager 2 transmitted two coherently related signals (at S and X bands), the two series of sky frequencies can be combined to isolate the Doppler frequency shift due to dispersive effects. The latter is used to compute the electron number density profiles inside the Triton ionosphere using a classical Abel transform-based method. Also, a Monte Carlo procedure is used to evaluate uncertainties in the derived profiles. The results of this analysis are consistent with those presented in the past literature, with the only difference of a slight (but important for the planning of future missions) shift in the ionosphere's peak altitude due to the use of updated Voyager and Triton ephemerides. The methods and data analysis approaches presented in this work are very relevant to the exploration of the Ice Giants, in particular for radio science observations of satellite tenuous exospheres and ionospheres.