@article{21379929988f4a8585b73257d1f94be4,
title = "Occultation observations of Saturn's rings with Cassini VIMS",
abstract = "We describe the prediction, design, execution and calibration of stellar and solar occultation observations of Saturn's rings by the Visual and Infrared Mapping Spectrometer (VIMS) instrument on the Cassini spacecraft. Particular attention is paid to the technique developed for onboard acquisition of the stellar target and to the geometric and photometric calibration of the data. Examples of both stellar and solar occultation data are presented, highlighting several aspects of the data as well as the different occultation geometries encountered during Cassini's 13-year orbital tour. Complete catalogs of ring stellar and solar occultations observed by Cassini-VIMS are presented, as a guide to the standard data sets which have been delivered to the Planetary Data System's Ring Moon Systems Node (Hedman and Nicholson, 2019b).",
keywords = "Dynamics, Occultations, Rings, Saturn",
author = "Nicholson, {Philip D.} and Todd Ansty and Hedman, {Matthew M.} and Douglas Creel and Johnathon Ahlers and Harbison, {Rebecca A.} and Brown, {Robert H.} and Clark, {Roger N.} and Baines, {Kevin H.} and Buratti, {Bonnie J.} and Christophe Sotin and Badman, {Sarah V.}",
note = "Funding Information: This work was supported by NASA , through Contract JPL #1403282 to PDN from the Cassini Project, operated by the Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, CA, USA. We acknowledge the efforts of the Cassini VIMS engineering and science teams in making the acquisition of these data possible, and the PDS Rings Node for providing guidance in the processing and formatting of the occultation data. Paul Stewart provided current values for the angular diameters of the stars listed in Table 1 . For many discussions of the potential for spacecraft stellar occultation observations of Saturn's rings, and of the potential utility of the VIMS instrument in carrying them out, we are indebted to Jim Elliot, Dick French, Keith Matthews, Mark Showalter, Jeffrey Cuzzi, and Bruno Sicardy. We thank our reviewers for pointing out numerous ways in which our presentation could be improved, and suggesting the addition of Table 11 . Publisher Copyright: {\textcopyright} 2019 Elsevier Inc.",
year = "2020",
month = jul,
day = "1",
doi = "10.1016/j.icarus.2019.06.017",
language = "English (US)",
volume = "344",
journal = "Icarus",
issn = "0019-1035",
publisher = "Academic Press Inc.",
}