Other
Scientific paper
Dec 2009
adsabs.harvard.edu/cgi-bin/nph-data_query?bibcode=2009agufm.p51g1186s&link_type=abstract
American Geophysical Union, Fall Meeting 2009, abstract #P51G-1186
Other
[6281] Planetary Sciences: Solar System Objects / Titan
Scientific paper
Titan’s north polar hydrocarbon lakes offer a unique opportunity to indirectly characterize the statistical properties of Titan’s landscape. A statistical characterization of Titan’s topography can be extracted through analysis of the shorelines of its north polar lakes, since the complexity of a shoreline can be related to the complexity of the landscape it is embedded in through fractal theory. We mapped the shorelines of 290 of the north polar Titanian lakes in the Cassini synthetic aperture radar dataset. Out of these, we used a subset of 188 lakes’ shorelines for our analysis. The fractal dimensions of the shorelines were calculated via two methods: the divider/ruler method and the box-counting method, at length scales of (1-10) km and found to average 1.246 and 1.142, respectively. Some of the shorelines exhibit multi-fractal behavior, (different fractal dimensions at different scales) which we interpret to signify a transition from one set of dominant surface processes to another. A steady increase in the fractal dimension with increasing latitude is also observed. Furthermore, a systematic difference between the dimensions of orthogonal sections of lakes’ shorelines is noted, which signifies possible anisotropy in Titan’s topography. We have also repeated the main fractal analysis mentioned above for the Titanian shorelines with terrestrial analogues from the Shuttle Radar Topography Mission (SRTM) dataset and we will be reporting the results of this comparison. The topographic information gleaned from the statistical analyses of Titan’s shorelines, in conjunction with the results from terrestrial analogues, can be used to constrain the spatial distribution of surface process types on Titan and perform landscape evolution modeling to infer the dominant surface processes that sculpt the landscape of Titan.
Byrne Shane
Sharma Pankaj
No associations
LandOfFree
Constraints on Titan's topography through fractal analysis of shorelines and comparison with terrestrial analogues 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 Constraints on Titan's topography through fractal analysis of shorelines and comparison with terrestrial analogues, we encourage you to share that experience with our LandOfFree.com community. Your opinion is very important and Constraints on Titan's topography through fractal analysis of shorelines and comparison with terrestrial analogues will most certainly appreciate the feedback.
Profile ID: LFWR-SCP-O-1773845