Update to thermal inertia and albedo maps of Enceladus

We present work to update current maps of the thermal properties of Enceladus using thermal observations from the Cassini Composite InfraRed Spectrometer (CIRS).  In 2010, the first maps of Enceladus’ thermal inertia were published that used what CIRS data was available at the time (Howett et al., 2010). These maps were resolved into some latitude zones, and overall conveyed lower thermal inertia and albedo at higher latitudes, and confirmed that like other cold, icy moons of Saturn its surface had low (< 50 MKS) thermal inertia.  Improvements to these maps using the totality of the CIRS Focal Plane 1 data (10-600 cm-1 / 16.7-1000 μm) from the mission with updated error estimates will yield better spatial resolution in addition to higher precision estimates of thermal inertia and albedo.   This will be particularly useful for improving models of surface temperature or estimating endogenic heat fluxes, like those at Enceladus’ south pole, associated with dissipation of heat from beneath.

Acknowledgements: Thanks are given to the NASA Cassini Data Analysis program that funded this work (80NSSC20K0477 and 80NSSC24K0373).

 

Reference:

Howett, C.J.A., Spencer, J.R., Pearl, J. and Segura, M., 2010. Thermal inertia and bolometric Bond albedo values for Mimas, Enceladus, Tethys, Dione, Rhea and Iapetus as derived from Cassini/CIRS measurements. Icarus, 206(2), pp.573-593.