Astronomy and Astrophysics – Astronomy
Scientific paper
Dec 2010
adsabs.harvard.edu/cgi-bin/nph-data_query?bibcode=2010agufm.p21b1604l&link_type=abstract
American Geophysical Union, Fall Meeting 2010, abstract #P21B-1604
Astronomy and Astrophysics
Astronomy
[5415] Planetary Sciences: Solid Surface Planets / Erosion And Weathering, [6281] Planetary Sciences: Solar System Objects / Titan, [6949] Radio Science / Radar Astronomy
Scientific paper
Cassini RADAR data are used to construct a global, albeit sparsely-sampled, topography map, and to generate a hypsometric profile to compare with other planetary bodies. Titan’s hypsogram is unimodal and strikingly narrow compared with the terrestrial planets. To investigate topographic extremes, a novel variant on the classic hypsogram is introduced, with a logarithmic abscissa to highlight mountainous terrain. In such a plot, the top of the terrestrial hypsogram is quite distinct from those of Mars and Venus due to the ‘glacial buzz-saw’ that clips terrestrial topography above the snowline. In contrast to the positive skew seen in other hypsograms, with a long tail of positive relief due to mountains, there is an indication (weak, given the limited data for Titan so far) that the Titan hypsogram appears slightly negatively skewed, suggesting a significant population of unfilled depressions. Limited data permit only a simplistic comparison of Titan topography with other icy satellites but we find that the standard deviation of terrain height (albeit at different scales) is similar to those of Ganymede and Europa. The topography of terrestrial planets is sampled with the same coverage that we have for Titan to gauge what as-yet-undiscovered topographic surprises may yet be hidden by Titan’s haze.
Cassini RADAR Team
Lorenz Ralph D.
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