Temporal Variations of Titan's Stratospheric Thermal Structure 2004-2009 From Cassini CIRS Observations

Details Temporal Variations of Titan's Stratospheric Thermal Structure 2004-2009 From Cassini CIRS Observations Temporal Variations of Titan's Stratospheric Thermal Structure 2004-2009 From Cassini CIRS Observations

Sep 2009

adsabs.harvard.edu/cgi-bin/nph-data_query?bibcode=2009dps....41.1703a&link_type=abstract

American Astronomical Society, DPS meeting #41, #17.03

Astronomy and Astrophysics

Astronomy

Scientific paper

The Cassini spacecraft has now been orbiting Saturn for five years. During that time, the Composite Infrared Spectrometer (CIRS) has been routinely making two sets of observations of Titan designed for measuring the temperature structure of the upper stratosphere and lower mesosphere. During the majority of Titan flybys, CIRS performs a nadir mapping sequence, which allows mapping of temperatures between roughly 0.5 mbar and 5 mbar over one hemisphere of Titan with a spatial resolution of 2.5° of arc. We also now have twelve limb mapping observations, each of which covers 30° to 90° of latitude, at 5° intervals with a vertical resolution of 30 to 50 km but with limited longitude coverage, and which allows retrieval of temperature between 0.005 mbar and 5 mbar.
With five years of data covering mid-to-late southern summer, we are now in a position to look for temporal variations in temperatures, related to seasonal change. In general, the observed temperature variations are small, with ΔT < 3K nearly everywhere, but a couple of trends are noticeable in the data. By far the most noticeable change is a cooling of the warm north polar stratopause by nearly 10K; calculation of the zonal mean wind using the gradient wind equation indicates a concomitant slowing of the north polar stratospheric vortex by about 10 m/s. The data also suggest a gradual cooling of the south polar stratosphere beginning near late 2006 or early 2007, with 1 mbar temperatures decreasing by 2-3K between early 2007 and mid 2009.

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