Computer Science
Scientific paper
Apr 2010
adsabs.harvard.edu/cgi-bin/nph-data_query?bibcode=2010ttt..work...69t&link_type=abstract
Through Time; A Workshop On Titan's Past, Present and Future, NASA Goddard Space Flight Center, April 6th - 8th, 2010. Edited b
Computer Science
Scientific paper
We present a time series of trace gas abundance in Titan's stratosphere derived from almost six years of Cassini Composite InfraRed Spectrometer (CIRS) observations. These measurements will greatly improve our understanding of seasonal variation in Titan's atmosphere and will provide new constraints for numerical models of Titan's atmospheric circulation.
Titan's thick nitrogen and methane atmosphere, coupled with interactions from solar photons and magnetospheric electrons, gives rise to a complex photochemical cycle that produces a vast array of hydrocarbon and nitrile species in the upper atmosphere. These species have lifetimes ranging from days to millions of years and hence have different vertical gradients in the atmosphere. Atmospheric circulations perturb these profiles, allowing the gases to be used as tracers to probe atmospheric dynamics over different timescales. Titan's axis has an obliquity of around 26 degrees, very similar to the Earth, so Titan experiences seasons and associated changes in atmospheric circulation patterns. Measuring variations in trace gas abundances with time allows us to monitor changes in these circulations with the passing seasons.
The Cassini CIRS dataset now spans almost six Earth years (almost a full Titan season) covering northern winter and early northern spring. During northern winter a single stratospheric circulation cell exists from the summer to the winter hemisphere with an intense winter polar vortex (e.g. Teanby et al 2008, JGR, 113, E12003). However, numerical models predict that this circulation pattern should soon change and the polar vortex break up. This phenomenon cannot be observed from the Earth due to observational geometry and Cassini provides a unique opportunity to observe the seasonal behaviour of Titan's dynamic atmosphere in detail for the first time.
de Kok Remco
Irwin Patrick G. J.
Nixon Conor A.
Teanby Nicholas A.
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