The Changing Face of Titan : Seasonal Variations in Titan's Haze from HST, Cassini and Groundbased Data

Details The Changing Face of Titan : Seasonal Variations in Titan's Haze from HST, Cassini and Groundbased Data The Changing Face of Titan : Seasonal Variations in Titan's Haze from HST, Cassini and Groundbased Data

Sep 2009

adsabs.harvard.edu/cgi-bin/nph-data_query?bibcode=2009dps....41.0706l&link_type=abstract

American Astronomical Society, DPS meeting #41, #7.06

Astronomy and Astrophysics

Astronomy

Scientific paper

HST observations acquired in February 2009 now extend a consistent record of imagery with the same instrument and filters to over half a Titan year. Currently, Titan resembles an `upside-down’ version of itself in 1995, although the north-south asymmetry contrast may be slightly weaker.
Although comparable low phase angle opportunities are rare, Cassini augments this picture with much higher spatial resolution ISS images, and spectrally-resolved image cubes from VIMS. The VIMS data show a complex dependence of the haze asymmetry with wavelength, and suggest that some changes have occurred over the last few years even though late summer should be relatively quiescent. Near-UV Cassini ISS images show Titan's dark north polar hood to be presently very prominent.
In many ways the most remarkable new result emerges from the simplest observation, disk-integrated photometry, which now extends over some 36 years. The seasonal cycle does not repeat perfectly, suggesting some kind of interannual variability, and Titan's disk-integrated blue albedo is lower than it has ever been since systematic observations began at Lowell in 1972. It is not known whether the variability is due to solar activity differences between Titan years, or some `hidden variable’ in the Titan climate system, analogous to the earth's oceans or Martian dust which cause interannual variability on those worlds.
We summarize these observations as Titan enters its most dynamic period of seasonal change around equinox.

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