Titan's Longitudinal Dunes in the Lab.

Details Titan's Longitudinal Dunes in the Lab. Titan's Longitudinal Dunes in the Lab.

Oct 2007

adsabs.harvard.edu/cgi-bin/nph-data_query?bibcode=2007dps....39.4407r&link_type=abstract

American Astronomical Society, DPS meeting #39, #44.07; Bulletin of the American Astronomical Society, Vol. 39, p.501

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Scientific paper

Cassini Radar observations of Titan's surface have revealed various landscapes. In particular, flybys probing Titan's equator unveiled linear features [1], which are morphologically similar to longitudinal dunes [2,3]. They appear pervasive in the range +-30° in latitude and could cover up to 20% of Titan's surface [4]. Their characteristics in term of width, length and spacing [1,4,5], or height and slope [6] are comparable to dunes of the Namib Desert [2]. On Earth, longitudinal dunes are the most commonly encountered dune and are observed in regions where the wind regime is composed of two main directions, the dunes orientation giving the mean sand transport. While terrestrial dunes are mostly formed by quartz sand grains, Titan's dunes are likely to be composed of hydrocarbon particulates [7]. Despite their different compositions, their morphological resemblances suggest similar processes of formation. Thus studying the formation of such structures could help to constrain models of Titan's winds [8].
However, formation of longitudinal dunes or even more generally longitudinal bedforms [9] have rarely been observed or reproduced in controlled conditions. Underwater experiments, in which sand transport timescale and lengthscale are decreased, have been used to successfully reproduce the dynamics of barchan dunes [10]. We show here how it is possible to explore the morphogenesis of longitudinal dunes using such a method combined with a numerical model.
References:
[1] Boubin et al. DPS 2005.
[2] Lorenz et al. LPSC 2006.
[3] Lorenz et al. Science 2006.
[4] Radebaugh et al. Icarus (in revision).
[5] Radebaugh et al. LPSC 2006.
[6] Kirk et al. LPSC 2005.
[7] Soderblom et al. P&SS (in press).
[8] Tokano et al. Icarus 2002.
[9] Rubin et al. Science 1987.
[10] Hersen et al. PRL, 2003.

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