Definition
Lenticulae are defined by the International Astronomical Union (IAU) as “small dark spots on Europa” (IAU 2012). This definition is specific to appearance of the surface at low resolution (~1 km/pixel or worse) with low phase-angle illumination, such that landforms and morphology are not visible (Fig. 1). It refers to albedo features only. In addition, a variety of informal, inconsistent, and often poorly defined usages have appeared in the literature in association with landforms and topographic features, only some of which are associated with the albedo features.
An image taken from the Galileo spacecraft during its first orbit of Jupiter shows at resolution 1.6 km/pixel a region that is unusually rich in small dark spots, called lenticulae. The spots in this region are typically ~10 km wide. Later, more complete imaging showed that lenticulae are part of a continuum of sizes of dark splotches with wide spatial distributions. These dark splotches of all sizes...
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Greenberg, R. (2014). Lenticula. In: Encyclopedia of Planetary Landforms. Springer, New York, NY. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4614-9213-9_217-1
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4614-9213-9_217-1
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