Auroral and Non‐Auroral H <sub>3</sub> <sup>+</sup> Ion Winds at Uranus With Keck‐NIRSPEC and IRTF‐iSHELL
Abstract To date, no investigation has documented ionospheric flows at Uranus. Previous investigations of Jupiter and Saturn have demonstrated that mapping ion winds can be used to understand ionospheric currents and how these connect to magnetosphere‐ionosphere coupling. We present a study of Uranus's near infrared emissions (NIR) using data from the Keck II Telescope's Near InfraRed SPECtrograph (NIRSPEC) and the InfraRed Telescope Facility's iSHELL spectrograph. H 3 + emission lines were used to derive dawn‐to‐dusk intensity, ionospheric temperatures and ion densities to identify auroral emissions, with their Doppler shifts used to measure ion velocities. We confirm the presence of the southern NIR aurora in 2016, driven by elevated H 3 + column densities up to 6.0 × 10 16 m −2 . While no auroral emissions were detected in 2014, we find a 14%–20% super rotation across the planet's disk in 2014 and a 7%–18% super rotation in 2016.
Authors
- James O’Donoghue (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-4218-1191)
- Emma Thomas (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-5773-6110)
- M. N. Chowdhury (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-3577-9395)
- Luke Moore (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-4481-9862)
- Hideyo Kawakita (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-2011-9159)
- Ruoyan Wang (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-4563-8919)
- Katie Knowles (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-5055-8115)
- Ronald J. Vervack (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-8227-9564)
- Tom Stallard (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-3990-670X)
- Neil Dello Russo (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-8379-7304)
- R. E. Johnson (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-4696-2160)
- Henrik Melin (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-5971-2633)
- Paola Tiranti (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-7339-9495)
Institutions
- Boston University (US)
- University of Leicester (GB)
- Aberystwyth University (GB)
- Kyoto Sangyo University (JP)
- Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory (US)
- Northumbria University (GB)
- University of Reading (GB)
Publication Details
- Journal
- Geophysical Research Letters
- Published
- 2025-04-01
- DOI
- https://doi.org/10.1029/2024gl112001
- Citations
- 2
- Primary Topic
- Astro and Planetary Science
- Type
- article
- Field-Weighted Citation Impact
- 2.31
Funders
- University of Leicester
- Office of Nuclear Energy
- Natural Environment Research Council
- Science and Technology Facilities Council
- Planetary Science Division
- British Antarctic Survey