Auroral and Non-Auroral H3+ Ion Winds at Uranus With Keck-NIRSPEC and IRTF-iSHELL

Emma M. Thomas; Tom S. Stallard; Henrik Melin; Mohammad N. Chowdhury; Luke Moore; James O'Donoghue; Rosie E. Johnson; Ruoyan Wang; Katie L. Knowles; Paola I. Tiranti; Neil Dello Russo; Ron J. Vervack Jr; Hideyo Kawakita

doi:10.1029/2024GL112001

Auroral and Non-Auroral H3⁺ Ion Winds at Uranus With Keck-NIRSPEC and IRTF-iSHELL

Emma M. Thomas^*
, Tom S. Stallard
, Henrik Melin
, Mohammad N. Chowdhury
, Luke Moore
, James O'Donoghue
, Rosie E. Johnson
, Ruoyan Wang
, Katie L. Knowles
, Paola I. Tiranti
, Neil Dello Russo
, Ron J. Vervack Jr
, Hideyo Kawakita

^*Corresponding author for this work

Department of Physics

Research output: Contribution to journal › Article › peer-review

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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. H3+ 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 H3+ column densities up to 6.0 × 1016 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.

Original language	English
Article number	e2024GL112001
Number of pages	9
Journal	Geophysical Research Letters
Volume	52
Issue number	7
Early online date	01 Apr 2025
DOIs	https://doi.org/10.1029/2024GL112001 https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.14162428
Publication status	Published - 16 Apr 2025

Keywords

H
Uranus
ground-based astronomy
ice giant ionosphere
infrared aurorae
infrared spectrscopy

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10.1029/2024GL112001Licence: CC BY
10.5281/zenodo.14162428Licence: CC BY

ArticleFinal published version, 1.19 MBLicence: CC BY
Supporting informationData, 1.94 MBLicence: CC BY

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Thomas, E. M., Stallard, T. S., Melin, H., Chowdhury, M. N., Moore, L., O'Donoghue, J., Johnson, R. E., Wang, R., Knowles, K. L., Tiranti, P. I., Dello Russo, N., Vervack Jr, R. J., & Kawakita, H. (2025). Auroral and Non-Auroral H3⁺ Ion Winds at Uranus With Keck-NIRSPEC and IRTF-iSHELL. Geophysical Research Letters, 52(7), Article e2024GL112001. https://doi.org/10.1029/2024GL112001, https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.14162428

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title = "Auroral and Non-Auroral H3+ 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. H3+ 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 H3+ column densities up to 6.0 × 1016 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. ",

keywords = "H, Uranus, ground-based astronomy, ice giant ionosphere, infrared aurorae, infrared spectrscopy",

author = "Thomas, \{Emma M.\} and Stallard, \{Tom S.\} and Henrik Melin and Chowdhury, \{Mohammad N.\} and Luke Moore and James O'Donoghue and Johnson, \{Rosie E.\} and Ruoyan Wang and Knowles, \{Katie L.\} and Tiranti, \{Paola I.\} and \{Dello Russo\}, Neil and \{Vervack Jr\}, \{Ron J.\} and Hideyo Kawakita",

note = "{\textcopyright} 2025. The Author(s).",

year = "2025",

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day = "16",

doi = "10.1029/2024GL112001",

language = "English",

volume = "52",

journal = "Geophysical Research Letters",

issn = "0094-8276",

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Thomas, EM, Stallard, TS, Melin, H, Chowdhury, MN, Moore, L, O'Donoghue, J, Johnson, RE, Wang, R, Knowles, KL, Tiranti, PI, Dello Russo, N, Vervack Jr, RJ & Kawakita, H 2025, 'Auroral and Non-Auroral H3⁺ Ion Winds at Uranus With Keck-NIRSPEC and IRTF-iSHELL', Geophysical Research Letters, vol. 52, no. 7, e2024GL112001. https://doi.org/10.1029/2024GL112001, https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.14162428

TY - JOUR

T1 - Auroral and Non-Auroral H3+ Ion Winds at Uranus With Keck-NIRSPEC and IRTF-iSHELL

AU - Thomas, Emma M.

AU - Stallard, Tom S.

AU - Melin, Henrik

AU - Chowdhury, Mohammad N.

AU - Moore, Luke

AU - O'Donoghue, James

AU - Johnson, Rosie E.

AU - Wang, Ruoyan

AU - Knowles, Katie L.

AU - Tiranti, Paola I.

AU - Dello Russo, Neil

AU - Vervack Jr, Ron J.

AU - Kawakita, Hideyo

PY - 2025/4/16

Y1 - 2025/4/16

N2 - 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. H3+ 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 H3+ column densities up to 6.0 × 1016 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.

AB - 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. H3+ 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 H3+ column densities up to 6.0 × 1016 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.

KW - H

KW - Uranus

KW - ground-based astronomy

KW - ice giant ionosphere

KW - infrared aurorae

KW - infrared spectrscopy

UR - https://www.scopus.com/pages/publications/105002017044

U2 - 10.1029/2024GL112001

DO - 10.1029/2024GL112001

M3 - Article

SN - 0094-8276

VL - 52

JO - Geophysical Research Letters

JF - Geophysical Research Letters

IS - 7

M1 - e2024GL112001

ER -

Auroral and Non-Auroral H3⁺ Ion Winds at Uranus With Keck-NIRSPEC and IRTF-iSHELL

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Keywords

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Auroral and Non-Auroral H3+ ion winds at Uranus with Keck-NIRSPEC and IRTF-iSHELL

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