Characterizing the Upper Atmosphere of Titan using the Titan Global Ionosphere- Thermosphere Model: Nitrogen and Methane.

Details Characterizing the Upper Atmosphere of Titan using the Titan Global Ionosphere- Thermosphere Model: Nitrogen and Methane. Characterizing the Upper Atmosphere of Titan using the Titan Global Ionosphere- Thermosphere Model: Nitrogen and Methane.

Dec 2008

adsabs.harvard.edu/cgi-bin/nph-data_query?bibcode=2008agufm.p12a..05b&link_type=abstract

American Geophysical Union, Fall Meeting 2008, abstract #P12A-05

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0343 Planetary Atmospheres (5210, 5405, 5704), 0355 Thermosphere: Composition And Chemistry, 0545 Modeling (4255), 5405 Atmospheres (0343, 1060), 5435 Ionospheres (2459)

Scientific paper

Recently, a great deal of effort has been put forth to explain the Cassini Ion-Neutral Mass Spectrometer (Waite et al [2004]) in-situ measurements of Titan's upper atmosphere (e.g. Muller-Wodarg [2008], Strobel [2008], Yelle et al [2008]). Currently, the community seems to agree that large amounts of CH4 are escaping from Titan's upper atmosphere at a rate of roughly 2.0 x 1027 molecules of CH4/s (3.33 x 1028 amu/s), representing a significant mass source to the Kronian Magnetosphere. However, such large escape fluxes from Titan are currently not corroborated by measurements onboard the Cassini Spacecraft. Thus, we posit another potential scenario: Aerosol depletion of atmospheric methane. Using the three-dimensional Titan Global Ionosphere-Thermosphere Model (T-GITM) (Bell et al [2008]), we explore the possible removal mechanisms of atmospheric gaseous constituents by these aerosols. Titan simulations are directly compared against Cassini Ion-Neutral Mass Spectrometer in-situ densities of N2 and CH4. From this work, we can then compare and contrast this aerosol depletion scenario against the currently posited hydrodynamic escape scenario, illustrating the merits and shortcomings of both.

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