Hidden Aurora of Uranus

直到最近，我们最后一次观察到天王星的极光是在1986年旅行者号飞越期间。这揭示了一个复杂的极光发射，由同样复杂和奇怪配置的行星磁场产生。最近，我们的同事首次从地球上探测到天王星极光，使用哈勃太空望远镜，显示出奇怪的明亮的极光发射闪光。在过去的二十年里，我们一直在监测天王星的高层大气和电离层，以测量极光在广义上加热大气的影响，但直接观察红外极光已被证明是困难的。然而，在过去的几年里，我们已经看到地面望远镜的红外仪器有了显着的改进，并且在最近尚未发表的数据中，第一次直接确定了天王星的红外极光。在这个博士学位中，我们将利用已经从包括凯克，IRTF和VLT在内的许多望远镜中获得的天王星数据，为了正确识别和描述天王星的红外极光发射，以及了解这对高层大气的影响。然而，博士学位的核心组成部分将是使用计划并对天王星进行新的观测。这可能包括前往夏威夷的莫纳克亚山，利用那里的一个天文台。

Until recently, the last time we'd ever observed the aurora of Uranus was during the Voyager flyby in 1986. This revealed a complex auroral emission, produced by the equally complex and strangely configured magnetic field of the planet. Recently, colleagues of ours made the first detection of Uranus aurora from Earth, using the Hubble Space Telescope, showing strange bright auroral flashes of emission. Over the past two decades, we have been monitoring the upper atmosphere and ionosphere of Uranus, in order to measure the effects the aurora has in heating the atmosphere in a broad sense, but observing the infrared aurora directly has proven difficult. In the past few years, however, we have seen significant improvements in infrared instrumentation of ground-based telescopes, and have, in data so recent it is not yet published, directly identified an infrared aurora at Uranus for the first time.In this PhD, we will utilise data already taken of Uranus from a number of telescopes including Keck, IRTF and VLT, in order to properly identify and describe infrared auroral emission at Uranus, as well as understanding the effects this has on the upper atmosphere. However, a core component of the PhD will be to use plan and take new observations of Uranus. This may involve travel to Mauna Kea, Hawaii, to utilise one of the observatories there.