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Clarke 1988
Clarke, J.T. (1988). IUE observations of neptune for H Lyman-a emission. Geophysical Research Letters 15: doi: 10.1029/88GL02170. issn: 0094-8276.

Neptune has been observed on seven occasions with the International Ultraviolet Explorer Observatory (IUE, Boggess et al. 1978) in an attempt to detect planetery H Ly-&agr; line emission. The observing technique is the same as previously employed in IUE observations of Uranus, described in detail by Clarke et al. (1986), and consists of spatial separation of the planetary emission from background geocoronal and interplanetary H Ly-&agr; emissions within the spectrograph aperture. No emission has been detected from Neptune in any of the observations, with 1 &sgr; upper limits to the plant-averaged surface brightness as low as 180 Rayleighs. Despite poorer sensitivity in observing Neptune from Earth orbit compared to the other planets, the intrinsic brightness is significantly less than the 400-1500 R that would be expected from scaling arguments. This upper limit does not rule out scattered solar H Ly-&agr; emission from a Jupiter-like atmosphere, and it does not rule out auroral emission from an active magnetosphere. The main significance is for the efficiency of the electroglow process on Neptune, and Neptune is significantly less efficient at producing bright aurora and/or electroglow than Uranus. This may further indicate that Neptune has a lower upper atmospheric temperature than Uranus. Âż American Geophysical Union 1988

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Abstract

Keywords
Planetology, Fluid Planets, Atmospheres—composition and chemistry, Planetology, Fluid Planets, Ionospheres, Planetology, Fluid Planets, Magnetic fields and magnetism, Planetology, Fluid Planets, Interactions with particles and fields
Journal
Geophysical Research Letters
http://www.agu.org/journals/gl/
Publisher
American Geophysical Union
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