Voyager disk-integrated photometry of triton.

ABSTRACT

Hapke's photometric model has been combined with a plane-parallel thin atmospheric haze model to describe Voyager whole-disk observations of Triton, in the violet (0.41 microm), blue (0.48 microm), and green (0.56 microm) wavelength bands, in order to obtain estimates of Triton's geometric albedo, phase integral, and Bond albedo. Phase angle coverage in these filters ranging from approximately 12 degrees to 159 degrees was obtained by combining narrow- and wide-angle camera images. An upturn in the data at the highest phase angles observed can be explained by including scattering in a thin atmospheric haze layer with optical depths systematically decreasing with wavelength from approximately 0.06 in the violet to 0.03 for the green filter data. The geometric albedo, phase integral, and spherical albedo of Triton in each filter corresponding to our best fit Hapke parameters yield an estimated Bond albedo of 0.82 +/- 0.05. If the 14-microbar N(2) atmosphere detected by Voyager is in vapor equilibrium with the surface (therefore implying a surface temperature of 37.5 K), our Bond albedo implies a surface emissivity of 0.59 +/- 0.16.