The Titan 14N/15N And 12C/13C Isotopic Ratios In HCN From Cassini/CIRS

Details The Titan 14N/15N And 12C/13C Isotopic Ratios In HCN From Cassini/CIRS The Titan 14N/15N And 12C/13C Isotopic Ratios In HCN From Cassini/CIRS

Sep 2006

adsabs.harvard.edu/cgi-bin/nph-data_query?bibcode=2006dps....38.3606v&link_type=abstract

American Astronomical Society, DPS meeting #38, #36.06; Bulletin of the American Astronomical Society, Vol. 38, p.549

Astronomy and Astrophysics

Astronomy

Scientific paper

We present an analysis of some sets of Titan limb spectra (0.5 cm-1 resolution) recorded by the Composite Infrared Spectrometer (CIRS) aboard Cassini between 10 and 1400 cm-1 (7 μm to 1 mm). We focus on the spectral range 700-730 cm-1, where HCN displays a strong emission feature from the ν2 band at 713 cm-1. Two of its isotopes exhibit the same band in this interval : H13CN at 706 cm-1 and the HC15N at 711 cm-1. The signal-to-noise of CIRS spectra is good enough to clearly detect these two isotopes on several limb spectra probing Titan's stratosphere.
The geometry of limb observations allows the retrieval of vertically-resolved information for compounds whose bands display a good signal-to-noise ratio. The emission intensity depends on both temperature and abundance profiles. As a first step, the temperature profile is retrieved from the ν4 methane emission band centered at 1305 cm-1, using an inversion algorithm of the radiative transfer equation combining both nadir and limb spectra. The retrieved thermal profile is then used to model the observed spectra in the range 700-730 cm-1. An inversion algorithm combining both nadir and limb spectra is used to retrieve the vertical mixing ratio profile of the molecules we consider. In this spectral range, C2H2 displays also many strong emission features from its ν5 band, so that its vertical profile was also retrieved and used in our atmospheric model.
The different sets of limb data allow the retrieval of the vertical mixing ratio profiles of HCN, H13CN and HC15N at several latitudes. Latitudinal or vertical variations of the isotopic ratios 14N/15N and 12C/13C can thus be investigated.

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