Neptune's Dark Vortex SDS-2015

Wong et al., 2018, AJ, 155, 117W

Fig. 1: Red/green/blue composite images show the evolution of dark vortex SDS-2015 from its discovery in September 2015, to a final view of a faded, small spot in October 2017. Multiple frames in each color have been combined to achieve the finest resolution achievable by Hubble.

Introduction

A new dark vortex was discovered on Neptune in 2015 observations by WFC3, as part of the OPAL program. A Mid-Cycle 23 program (GO-14492) confirmed the dark spot with higher SNR imaging, as described in a 2016 STScI press release. Data processing and HLSP formats are described in Wong et al. (2018) and in the README file. OPAL 2017 images gave the final views of SDS-2017, as it seemed to fade away.

A NASA press release about this discovery was announced on 15 Feb. 2018, and features the OPAL HLSP observations.

Description of Data Products

Data in this set are in the form of "_nav.fits" files, containing image data, keyword-based metadata, and image extensions giving latitude, longitude, emission, and solar incidence angle for each pixel. Filenames begin with "hlsp_sds-2015_hst_wfc3-uvis_neptune-", and come from a few different sources. These are sorted into sub-directories, and are from either:

HST Program GO-14492
OPAL Program Data (GO-13937, GO-14334, or GO-14756)

Following the file name prefix is the UT date and time of the start of the WFC3/UVIS exposure, e.g., "20160516-0346". Finally, the filter name, version, and "_nav.fits" extension.

Data Access

You can retrieve the .nav files from the table below.

Date	GO ID	File List
2015.71	GO-13937	Files
2016.37	GO-14492	Files
2016.76	GO-14334	Files
2017.76	GO-14756	Files