Titan's Mid-latitude Clouds

Details Titan's Mid-latitude Clouds Titan's Mid-latitude Clouds

Oct 2007

adsabs.harvard.edu/cgi-bin/nph-data_query?bibcode=2007dps....39.4708r&link_type=abstract

American Astronomical Society, DPS meeting #39, #47.08; Bulletin of the American Astronomical Society, Vol. 39, p.506

Astronomy and Astrophysics

Astronomy

Scientific paper

In the first few years of spatially resolved observations of Titan's tropospheric methane clouds (2001-2003) all of the clouds were clustered in the south polar region. This time period coincided with the southern summer solstice (October 2002) and these south polar clouds are almost certainly a seasonal phenomenon. Starting in December 2003 we began seeing clouds in a narrow latitude range centered at 40°S latitude. In Roe et al. (2005a) we published this initial discovery and speculated that the clouds might be due either to changes in the seasonal circulation pattern or a
process linked to surface geography. Further observations soon revealed that the clouds were significantly clustered over one region of longitude (near 350°W), strongly suggesting a geographically controlled origin (Roe et al. 2005b), although Cassini observations suggest a circulation-induced convergence origin (Griffith et al. 2005).
The actual answer is most likely a combination of geographic surface effects with the atmospheric circulation. We report here on our continuing ground-based observation campaign, including observations on 65 nights in the 2006-2007 apparition with the Gemini 8-m telescope. With two more years of observations since the data shown in Roe et al. (2005b) we now have much firmer conclusions with respect to the spatial distribution and temporal characteristics of the mid-latitude clouds. We will present our latest understanding of Titan's mid-latitude clouds given the entire dataset now available to us.
References
Griffith, C.A., & 26 co-authors 2005. Science, 310, 474.
Roe, H.G., A.H. Bouchez, C.A. Trujillo, E.L. Schaller, & M.E. Brown 2005a. ApJL, 618, 49.
Roe, H.G., M.E. Brown, E.L. Schaller, A.H. Bouchez, & C.A. Trujillo 2005b. Science, 310, 477.
This work is supported by NASA under Grant #NNX07AK74G issued through the Planetary Astronomy Program.

Affiliated with

Also associated with

No associations

Rating

Titan's Mid-latitude Clouds does not yet have a rating. At this time, there are no reviews or comments for this scientific paper.

If you have personal experience with Titan's Mid-latitude Clouds, we encourage you to share that experience with our LandOfFree.com community. Your opinion is very important and Titan's Mid-latitude Clouds will most certainly appreciate the feedback.

Rate now

Comments { 0 }

Profile ID: LFWR-SCP-O-1066822