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Galileo's Solid State Imager (SSI) observed Tvashtar Catena four times between November 1999 and October 2001, providing a unique look at a distinctive high latitude volcanic complex on Io. The first observation (orbit 125, November 1999) resolved, for the first time, an active extraterrestrial fissure eruption; the brightness temperature was at least 1300 K. The second observation (orbit 127, February 2000) showed a large (~500 [km.sup.2]) region with many, small, hot, regions of active lava. The third observation was taken in conjunction with Cassini imaging in December 2000 and showed a Pele-like, annular plume deposit. The Cassini images revealed an ~400 km high Pele-type plume above Tvashtar Catena. The final Galileo SSI observation of Tvashtar (orbit I32, October 2001), revealed that obvious (to SSI) activity had ceased, although data from Galileo's Near Infrared Mapping Spectrometer (NIMS) indicated that there was still significant thermal emission from the Tvashtar region. In this paper, we primarily analyze the style of eruption during orbit 127 (February 2000). Comparison with a lava flow cooling model indicates that the behavior of the Tvashtar eruption during 127 does not match that of simple advancing lava flows. Instead, it may be an active lava lake or a complex set of lava flows with episodic, overlapping eruptions. The highest reliable color temperature is 1300 K. Although higher temperatures cannot be ruled out, they do not need to be invoked to fit the observed data. The total power output from the active lavas in February 2000 was at least 1011 W. Keywords: Io; Volcanism; Surfaces; Satellites; Image processing

We present the observations of Io acquired by the Solid State Imaging (SSI) experiment during the Galileo Millennium Mission (GMM) and the strategy we used to plan the exploration of Io. Despite Galileo's tight restrictions on data volume and downlink capability and several spacecraft and camera anomalies due to the intense radiation close to Jupiter, there were many successful SSI observations during GMM. Four giant, high-latitude plumes, including the largest plume ever observed on Io, were documented over a period of eight months; only faint evidence of such plumes had been seen since the Voyager 2 encounter, despite monitoring by Galileo during the previous five years. Moreover, the source of one of the plumes was Tvashtar Catena, demonstrating that a single site can exhibit remarkably diverse eruption styles--from a curtain of lava fountains, to extensive surface flows, and finally a ~400 km high plume--over a relatively short period of time (~13 months between orbits 125 and G29). Despite this substantial activity, no evidence of any truly new volcanic center was seen during the six years of Galileo observations. The recent observations also revealed details of mass wasting processes acting on Io. Slumping and landsliding dominate and occur in close proximity to each other, demonstrating spatial variation in material properties over distances of several kilometers. However, despite the ubiquitous evidence for mass wasting, the rate of volcanic resurfacing seems to dominate; the floors of paterae in proximity to mountains are generally free of debris. Finally, the highest resolution observations obtained during Galileo's final encounters with Io provided further evidence for a wide diversity of surface processes at work on Io. Keywords: Io; Surfaces, satellite; Satellites of Jupiter; Volcanism; Tectonics; Geological processes

Images of Europa from the Galileo spacecraft show a surface with a complex history involving tectonic deformation, impact cratering, and possible emplacement of ice-rich materials and perhaps liquids on the surface. Differences in impact crater distributions suggest that some areas have been resurfaced more recently than others; Europa could experience current cryovolcanic and tectonic activity. Global-scale patterns of tectonic features suggest deformation resulting from non-synchronous rotation of Europa around Jupiter. Some regions of the lithosphere have been fractured, with icy plates separated and rotated into new positions. The dimensions of these plates suggest that the depth to liquid or mobile ice was only a few kilometers at the time of disruption. Some surfaces have also been upwarped, possibly by diapirs, cryomagmatic intrusions, or convective upwelling. In some places, this deformation has led to the development of chaotic terrain in which surface material has collapsed and/or been eroded. Key Words: Europa; Europa geology; Galileo; Galilean satellites; jovian satellites.

On November 9, 1996 and again on April 2, 1997, the Galileo spacecraft's Solid State Imaging (SSI) camera targeted the northern auroral region of Jupiter. These observations represent (i) the first spatially resolved images of the jovian auroral oval either at visible wavelengths or on the nightside of the planet, (ii) the first image at visible wavelengths of an auroral footprint of the Io Flux Tube (IFT), (iii) the first unambiguous detection at visible wavelengths of auroral emission on the jovian limb, and (iv) the first images of the aurora with spatial resolution below 100 km per pixel (46 and 35 km, respectively). Relative to many prior expectations, the visible aurora is (i) lower in altitude, (ii) associated with magnetic field lines that cross the equator closer to the planet, and (iii) more variable in time and space. The 1996 images used a clear (broadband) filter, while the 1997 images used both the clear filter and five narrower filters over wavelengths ranging from violet to 968 nm. The filtered images imply that the visible auroral emission contains atomic hydrogen lines, although there is also a continuum component. We were able to position the aurora in three-dimensional space and found the limb emission to be [approximately]240 km above the surface of a standard (P [approximately equal to] 1 bar) reference ellipsoid. Our most accurate analysis of the equatormost part of the oval placed it at 54.5 [degrees] planetocentric latitude and 168 [degrees] west longitude. Combined with the latest magnetic field models, our results imply that the particles that cause the aurora originate in Jupiter's equatorial plane [approximately]13 [R.sub.J] from the center of the planet. The oval was brighter and wider in the 1996 images than in the 1997 images. The broadband radiance of a typical place on the oval as seen directly overhead varied from [approximately]80 kR in 1997 to [approximately]300 kR in 1996. Our estimates of the full width of the oval varied from under 500 km to over 8000 km, partly depending on the signal-to-noise ratio of the image. The radiated power per unit length along the oval ranged from [approximately]60 to [approximately]700 W/m, with the associated radiated power from the entire oval varying from [approximately][10.sup.9] to [approximately]9 x [10.sup.10] W. Appreciable auroral emission also occurred both north and south of the main oval. One image contains the northern footprint of the IFT, which appears as a central ellipse with a tail of emission that lies downstream with respect to the plasma flow past Io. The central ellipse is [approximately]1200 km downstream by [approximately]500 km cross stream. The IFT is comparable in brightness to the nearby auroral oval ([approximately]250 kR) and has a total radiated power of [approximately]3 x [10.sup.8] W. Key Words: Aurorae; Jupiter, atmosphere, general; atmospheres, structure, Jupiter; ionospheres, Jupiter; magnetospheres, Io.

During the first six orbits of the Galileo spacecraft's prime mission, the Solid State Imaging (SSI) system acquired multispectral image mosaics of Jupiter's Great Red Spot, an equatorial belt/zone boundary, a '5-[[micro]meter] hot spot' similar to the Galileo Probe entry site, and two of the classic White Ovals. We present mosaics of each region, approximating their appearance at visible wavelengths and showing cloud height and opacity variations. The local wind field is derived by tracking cloud motions between multiple observations of each region with time separations of roughly 1 and 10 hr. Vertical cloud structure is derived in a companion paper by Banfield et al. (Icarus 135, 230-250). Galileo's brief, high-resolution observations complement Earth-based and Voyager studies and offer local meteorological context for the Galileo Probe results. Our results show that the dynamics of the zonal jets and large vortices have changed little since Voyager, with a few exceptions. We detect a cyclonic current within the center of the predominantly anticyclonic Great Red Spot. The zonal velocity difference between 0 [degrees] S and 6 [degrees] S has increased by 20 m [sec.sup.-1]. We measure a strong northeast flow approaching the hot spot. This flow indicates either massive horizontal convergence or the presence of a large anticyclonic vortex southeast of the hot spot. The current compact arrangement of two White Ovals and a cyclonic structure greatly perturbs the zonal jets in that region. Key Words: Jupiter atmosphere; atmospheric dynamics; image processing; spacecraft.

Active volcanism on Io has been monitored during the nominal Galileo satellite tour from mid 1996 through late 1997. The Solid State Imaging (SSI) experiment was able to observe many manifestations of this active volcanism, including (1) changes in the color and albedo of the surface, (2) active airborne plumes, and (3) glowing vents seen in eclipse. About 30 large-scale (tens of kilometers) surface changes are obvious from comparison of the SSI images to those acquired by Voyager in 1979. These include new pyroclastic deposits of several colors, bright and dark flows, and caldera-floor materials. There have also been significant surface changes on Io during the Galileo mission itself, such as a new 400-km-diameter dark pyroclastic deposit around Pillan Patera. While these surface changes are impressive, the number of large-scale changes observed in the four months between the Voyager 1 and Voyager 2 flybys in 1979 suggested that over 17 years the cumulative changes would have been much more impressive. There are two reasons why this was not actually the case. First, it appears that the most widespread plume deposits are ephemeral and seem to disappear within a few years. Second, it appears that a large fraction of the volcanic activity is confined to repeated resurfacing of dark calderas and flow fields that cover only a few percent of Io's surface. The plume monitoring has revealed 10 active plumes, comparable to the 9 plumes observed by Voyager. One of these plumes was visible only in the first orbit and three became active in the later orbits. Only the Prometheus plume has been consistently active and easy to detect. Observations of the Pele plume have been particularly intriguing since it was detected only once by SSI, despite repeated attempts, but has been detected several times by the Hubble Space Telescope at 255 nm. Pele's plume is much taller (460 km) than during Voyager 1 (300 km) and much fainter at visible wavelengths. Prometheus-type plumes (50-150 km high, long-lived, associated with high-temperature hot spots) may result from silicate lava flows or shallow intrusions interacting with near-surface S[O.sub.2]. A major and surprising result is that [approximately]30 of Io's volcanic vents glow in the dark at the short wavelengths of SSI. These are probably due to thermal emission from surfaces hotter than 700 K (with most hotter than 1000 K), well above the temperature of pure sulfur volcanism. Active silicate volcanism appears ubiquitous. There are also widespread diffuse glows seen in eclipse, related to the interaction of energetic particles with the atmosphere. These diffuse glows are closely associated with the most active volcanic vents, supporting suggestions that Io's atmosphere is dominated by volcanic outgassing. Globally, volcanic centers are rather evenly distributed. However, 14 of the 15 active plumes seen by Voyager and/or Galileo are within 30 of the equator, and there are concentrations of glows seen in eclipse at both the sub- and antijovian points. These patterns might be related to asthenospheric tidal heating or tidal stresses. Io will continue to be observed during the Galileo Europa Mission, which will climax with two close flybys of Io in late 1999. Key Words: Io; volcanism; infrared observations; satellites of Jupiter; spacecraft.

Dactyl was discovered in solid state imaging (SSI) data on February 17,1994, during the long playback of approach images from the Galileo spacecraft's encounter with the asteroid 243 Ida. Forty-seven images of the Ida-Dactyl pair were obtained. A detailed search for other satellites was made. No confirmed detections were made, all other candidate features being consistent with radiation hits. We deduce a manifold of osculating two-body orbits that approximate Dactyl's motion over the observed orbital arc depending on the assumed mass of Ida. At the time of Galileo's encounter, Dactyl was found to be 85 km from the center of Ida, moving at [approximately]6 m [center dot] [sec.sup.-1] in the same direction as Ida's retrograde spin. The inclination of its orbit is [approximately]172 [degrees] in Ida's equatorial system (IAU definition). It was not possible to obtain a definitive orbit or measure of Ida's mass from the observed motion even though supplemental techniques (search for Dactyl's shadow on Ida, changes in angular diameter and brightness, and attempts to determine the spin of Dactyl) were explored. The influence of Ida's irregular gravitational field and solar perturbations on two-body motion are evaluated and found to be undetectable in the observed orbital arc. These effects may, however, strongly influence the motion over orbital time scales. Limits to the value of Ida's gravitation parameter, GM, are derived. A robust lower limit, GM > 0.0023 [km.sup.3] [center dot] [sec.sup.-2], is obtained by requiring Dactyl's orbit to be bound. Hubble Space Telescope observations, which show no evidence of Dactyl on a hyperbolic orbit, excludes values of GM in the range 0.00216 < GM < 0.0023 [km.sup.3] [center dot] [sec.sup.-2]. An upper limit, GM < 0.0031 [km.sup.3] [center dot] [sec.sup.-2], deduced by requiring that the orbital motion has a long lifetime in a realistic approximation to Ida's gravitational field, is illustrated with numerical calculations. Ida's mass is therefore constrained to the range 4.2 [+ or -] 0.6 x [10.sup.19] g, which, together with a volume of 16,100 [+ or -] 1900 [km.sup.3] (Thomas P. C., M. J. S. Belton, B. Carcich, C. R. Chapman, M. E. Davies, R. Sullivan, and J. Veverka 1996. Icarus 120, 20-32.) yields a bulk density of 2.6 [+ or -] 0.5 g [center dot] [cm.sup.-3] (Belton, M. J. S., C. R. Chapman, P. C. Thomas, M. E. Davies, R. Greenberg, K. Klaasen, D. Byrnes, L. D'Amario, S. Synnott, T. V. Johnson, A. McEwen, W. Merline, D. R. Davis, J-M. Petit, A. Storrs, J. Veverka, and B. Zellner 1995. Nature 374, 785-788.).

We provide an overview of the execution, data, and results of the solid state imaging (SSI) experiment at the encounter of the Galileo spacecraft with the asteroid 243 Ida. Ninety-six images of the asteroid, representing 18 time samples during a rotation period (4.633 h), were transmitted to Earth as a result of the UT 1993 August 28.70284 encounter. This provided coverage of [approximately]95% of the surface and achieved ground resolutions as high as 25 m/pixel. Coverage of most of Ida's surface is available in four colors, with limited regions in five colors, at resolutions up to 105 m/pixel. A natural satellite of Ida, called Dactyl, was discovered in a prograde (with respect to Ida's spin), near-equatorial, orbit moving slowly ([approximately] 6 m/sec) with a separation of 85 km from Ida. Ida's shape is highly irregular; by comparison, Dactyl's global topography is quite smooth. The best fit ellipsoid to Ida's shape has principal dimensions 59.8 x 25.4 x 18.6 km, mean radius 15.7 km, and volume 16,100 [+ or -] 1900 [km.sup.3]. Dactyl's mean radius is only 0.7 km. Ida's spin axis (right ascension: 348.76 [degrees] [+ or -] 7.5 [degrees]; declination: 87.10 [degrees] [+ or -] 0.4 [degrees]; J2000) was found to align with the principal axis of inertia to within the error of measurement. This is consistent with a homogeneous density distribution. Dactyl's rotation rate is unknown, but its long axis was pointed in the direction of Ida at the time of observation, suggesting synchronism of its orbital motion and spin. Constraints on Dactyl's orbit yield 4.2 [+ or -] 0.6 x [10.sup.19] g for Ida's mass and 2.6 [+ or -] 0.5 g/[cm.sup.3] for its bulk density. Unless Ida's bulk porosity is exceptionally high, Ida has moderate to low NiFe content. Subtle color variations across the surface of Ida are associated with fresh craters, but, unlike the case for Asteroid 951 Gaspra, are not correlated with topographic features such as ridges. This difference may be a reflection of a deeper and/or more mobile regolith on Ida. Dactyl's spectral reflectance is similar to, but quantitatively distinct from the surface of Ida itself. This difference may reflect compositional differences between Dactyl and Ida, which in turn may have originated in an only partially differentiated Koronis parent body. Results on the origin, collisional history, and geology of Ida and Dactyl are the subject of many of the papers in this special issue. There is general agreement that these asteroids originated in the catastrophic breakup of the Koronis parent body and that the formation of asteroid-satellite systems may be relatively common in such events. The age and collisional history of the pair present a dilemma: using standard interpretations of the cratering record on Ida's surface, an age > 1 byr. is indicated. However, the lifetime of Dactyl against collisional disruption is many times less than this. Novel ideas are presented concerning the collisional history of these two small objects that may resolve this dilemma. These ideas result from analysis of the geological record on the surface of Ida, Dactyl, and, by comparison, Gaspra - all of which are examined in this special issue. The execution of the Galileo flybys of Gaspra, Ida, and Dactyl provide important lessons for future flybys of small bodies. We present our views on the limitations faced by the Galileo imaging experimenters and indicate how future missions can be made more quantitative and productive through the application of innovative electronic control systems and detector technology.

THE GALILEO SPACECRAFT ENCOUNTERED THE EARTH-moon system in December 1990 in the first of two flybys that are part of a sequence of planetary gravity assists that will deliver the [...], Multispectral images of the lunar western limb and far side obtained from Galileo reveal the compositional nature of several prominent lunar features and provide new information on lunar evolution. The data reveal that the ejecta from the Orientale impact basin (900 kilometers in diameter) lying outside the Cordillera Mountains was excavated from the crust, not hte mantle, and covers pre-Orientale terrain that consisted of both highland materials and relatively large expenses of ancient mare basalts. The inside of the far side South Pole--Aitken basinc (>2000 kilometers in diameter) has low albedo, red color, and a relatively high abundance of iron- and magnesium-rich materials. These features suggest that the impact may have penetrated into the deep crust or lunar mantle or that the basin contains ancient mare basalts that were later covered by highlands ejecta.

THE SOLID STATE IMAGING (SSI) camera on Galileo returned 77 useful images from Venus documenting the dynamical state of the cloud tops during the week after the encounter on 10 [...]

Calibration of NASA’s Deep Impact spacecraft instruments allows reliable scientific interpretation of the images and spectra returned from comet Tempel 1. Calibrations of the four onboard remote sensing imaging instruments have been performed in the areas of geometric calibration, spatial resolution, spectral resolution, and radiometric response. Error sources such as noise (random, coherent, encoding, data compression), detector readout artifacts, scattered light, and radiation interactions have been quantified. The point spread functions (PSFs) of the medium resolution instrument and its twin impactor targeting sensor are near the theoretical minimum [∼1.7 pixels full width at half maximum (FWHM)]. However, the high resolution instrument camera was found to be out of focus with a PSF FWHM of ∼9 pixels. The charge coupled device (CCD) read noise is ∼1 DN. Electrical cross-talk between the CCD detector quadrants is correctable to <2 DN. The IR spectrometer response nonlinearity is correctable to ∼1%. Spectrometer read noise is ∼2 DN. The variation in zero-exposure signal level with time and spectrometer temperature is not fully characterized; currently corrections are good to ∼10 DN at best. Wavelength mapping onto the detector is known within 1 pixel; spectral lines have a FWHM of ∼2 pixels. About 1% of the IR detector pixels behave badly and remain uncalibrated. The spectrometer exhibits a faint ghost image from reflection off a beamsplitter. Instrument absolute radiometric calibration accuracies were determined generally to <10% using star imaging. Flat-field calibration reduces pixel-to-pixel response differences to ∼0.5% for the cameras and <2% for the spectrometer. A standard calibration image processing pipeline is used to produce archival image files for analysis by researchers. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We describe recent results on the CO/CO2/H2O composition of comets together with a survey of older literature (primarily for CO/H2O) and compare these with models of the protoplanetary disk. Even with the currently small sample, there is a wide dispersion in abundance ratios and little if any systematic difference between Jupiter-family comets (JFCs) and long-period and Halley-type comets (LPCs and HTCs). We argue that the cometary observations require reactions on grain surfaces to convert CO to CO2 and also require formation of all types of comets in largely, but not entirely, overlapping regions, probably between the CO and CO2 snow lines. Any difference in the regions of formation is in the opposite direction from the classical picture with the JFCs having formed closer to the Sun than the LPCs. In the classical picture, the LPCs formed in the region of the giant planets and the JFCs formed in the Kuiper Belt. However, these data suggest, consistent with suggestions on dynamical grounds, that the JFCs and LPCs formed in largely overlapping regions where the giant planets are today and with JFCs on average forming slightly closer to the Sun than did the LPCs. Presumably at least the JFCs passed through the scattered disk on their way to their present dynamical family. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Previous comet flyby missions enabled detailed studies of the photometric properties of several cometary nuclei from disk-resolved images, including 9P/Tempel 1, 19P/Borrelly, and 81P/Wild 2. Two recent missions, DIXI and Stardust-NExT, encountered Comets 103P/Hartley 2 and Tempel 1 respectively, expanding the pool of sampled cometary nuclei in their unique ways: Hartley 2 is a hyperactive comet; Tempel 1 was visited and impacted by the Deep Impact dual-spacecraft during its previous perihelion passage. Photometric modeling shows that the global photometric properties of the nuclei of Hartley 2 and Tempel 1 are similar to those of other cometary nuclei. The photometric variation of the hyperactive nucleus of Hartley 2 is about 15%, similar to that of weakly active comets Tempel 1 and Wild 2. The photometric properties of Tempel 1 measured by NExT suggest little change from those measured by DI. These results, together with the photometric properties of Wild 2 and Borrelly, indicate that the photometric properties of cometary nuclei are independent of the activity level and gross geomorphology of cometary nuclei. Instead, cometary nucleus photometric properties might be determined by its outgassing, which leaves low-albedo deposit on the surface and forms similar photometric texture. The time scale for the photometric alteration on cometary nuclei due to outgassing should be much shorter than the dynamic time scale. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]