Io: The near-infrared monitoring program, 1979–1981

Discovery of a Powerful, Transient, Explosive Thermal Event at Marduk Fluctus, Io, in Galileo NIMS Data

“…The radiance from this event, with such rapid waxing and waning in radiance at all wavelengths and with such large variations in intensity, changes more rapidly than has been previously seen on Io (Blaney et al, 1995;Davies, 1996;Sinton et al, 1983). We can speculate as to what physical process generates this thermal signal evolution.…”

Near-infrared monitoring of Io and detection of a violent outburst on 29 August 2013

“…Between 1979and 1981, Sinton et al (1983 observed Io during 37 nights at 2.2, 3.8, and 4.8 lm in disk-integrated photometry. They detected ongoing outbursts during eight of these nights and reported decay in the 4.8-lm emission during some events over as short a timescale as a few hours.…”

Characterization of Io's Volcanic Activity by Infrared Polarimetry

“…Our best position (288°W, 20°N) indicates that the source of the 5-p.m emission is east and north of Loki Patera, a circular, low-albedo feature (200 km in diameter) that is thought to be a large 4 lava lake. This location is consistent with the source lying near the east end of Loki, a linear, low-albedo feature (250 km in length) northeast of Loki Patera and the apparent source of plumes 2 and 9 seen by Voyager.…”

“…At 5 ,um, most of the background flux from Io is reflected sunlight (3,4). Near opposition, linear polarization of this reflected flux is negligible (8).…”

“…It is generally assumed in tidal prediction that the observed M2 tide will be modulated by the same amount. In the few instances in which long records of sea level have been analyzed to check this assumption (4,5), they show noticeable differences from the astronomical values. Using more recent data, we examined the de-parture of the modulation of M2 from the value predicted in the equilibrium tide and we compared our results with those from a numerical model and from theoretical calculations.…”