Thermal transport in Saturn's B ring inferred from Cassini CIRS

While the integrated normal flux from the B ring varies linearly with sinB′ as expected, an important finding is that it is dominated for by isotropic emission both on the lit and unlit sides. On the lit side there is an additional emission from a low-phase hot spot with an angular width of 50° that accounts for approximately 2-10% of the total emission. Accounting for wake orientation affects only the inner B Ring, decreasing the absorbed incident radiation by 5-10% there. The numerical model uses only a scalar albedo to parameterize the absorption. It requires a low albedo of A∼0.3 to be brought into agreement with ring emission, which is expected if there is enhanced radiance absorption over the single scattered estimates, due to multiple scattering within the ring.