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F. Marchis (ESO), R. Prange (IAS), T. Fusco (ONERA)
The volcanic activity of Io has been monitored over the last 4 years and in particular during the flybies of Io by Galileo in late 1999 at the ESO-La Silla observatory using the {\sc adonis} AO system mounted on the 3.6~m telescope. This AO system gives the possibility to obtain high spatial resolution images (~400~km) of the satellite at thermal NIR wavelength (>3.5 \mum). Both hemispheres of Io have been monitored. A new deconvolution process ({\small MISTRAL}), especially designed for planetary observation by AO systems is applied to the 3.8\mum images and allows to resolve and to follow up to 18 hot spots as Io rotates. Variability of the volcanic activity on these 4 years of observations will be presented and compared to Galileo results.
By means of a simulation, we will also address the capabilities of the AO systems planned for 8~m-class telescopes to study the Io volcanic activity in the future.
{\em Data presented here are based on observations collected at the European Southern Observatory, Chile (proposal: 63.S-0260 and 64.S-0661)}.
The author(s) of this abstract have provided an email address for comments about the abstract: franck.marchis@ias.fr