Other
Scientific paper
Dec 2005
adsabs.harvard.edu/cgi-bin/nph-data_query?bibcode=2005agufm.p33c0253w&link_type=abstract
American Geophysical Union, Fall Meeting 2005, abstract #P33C-0253
Other
5405 Atmospheres (0343, 1060), 6281 Titan
Scientific paper
The existence of multiple haze layers in Titan's upper atmosphere suggests that some physical mechanism concentrates aerosols into horizontally extensive and vertically connected regions. It is proposed here that the relevant mechanism could be the vertical transport of aerosol particles by Saturn's gravitational tides propagating energy upward through Titan's atmosphere. A quantitative analysis of the atmospheric gravitational tides shows that the winds in Titan's atmosphere strongly influence which tidal components could reach the high altitudes of the multiple haze layers. For a model of Titan's superrotating winds based on Doppler tracking of the Huygens probe the strongly forced eastward propagating s=2 tide is killed in regions where it is Doppler shifted to small intrinsic frequency. Only the weakly forced westward propagating s =2 tide reaches high altitudes where its vertical wavelength is O(100~km) and it induces O(100~m) vertical displacements of the atmosphere. The s=0 tide is strongly forced, but it dies in the strong high altitude winds, where its vertical wavelength becomes very short and it is strongly damped by scale-dependent diffusion. We also performed calculations for other wind models that might reflect the global wind system and find that the s=0 tide might produce some layering where moderate westward winds occur. The s=2 eastward tide might produce significant layering when the minimum eastward wind is strong enough to avoid Doppler shifting this tide to very small frequencies, but most likely the tide would be confined to low latitudes.
Schubert Gerald
Walterscheid Richard L.
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