Evidence for Ethane Clouds on Titan

Details Evidence for Ethane Clouds on Titan Evidence for Ethane Clouds on Titan

Sep 2006

adsabs.harvard.edu/cgi-bin/nph-data_query?bibcode=2006dps....38.3205g&link_type=abstract

American Astronomical Society, DPS meeting #38, #32.05; Bulletin of the American Astronomical Society, Vol. 38, p.544

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Scientific paper

We present spectra from Cassini's Visual Infrared Mapping Spectrometer, that reveal the presence of a vast tropospheric cloud at latitude 51-68 north and all longitudes observed (10-191 west). Methane clouds are not expected at these latitudes, where the general circulation is predicted to transport dry air from the stratosphere to the troposphere, which thereby becomes subsaturated. The derived characteristics of the cloud indicate instead that it is composed mostly of ethane. The cloud forms as a result of stratospheric subsidence. Ethane under-saturated above 65 km is transported to 30-50 km altitude, where its mixing ratio exceeds saturation by a factor of several hundred. This explanation implies that we are seeing the edge of a massive polar ethane cloud, and the preferential condensation, sedimentation and surface accumulation of ethane (and other photochemical products) within 35 degrees latitude of the north pole. The polar accumulation of ethane, perhaps as ice, may partially explain the lack of liquid ethane oceans on Titan's surface at middle and lower latitudes. The sedimentation of material predominately at Titan's poles further suggests a polar surface composition and geology that differs from those at lower latitudes.

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