The Thermal Structure of Titan's Upper Atmosphere

Details The Thermal Structure of Titan's Upper Atmosphere The Thermal Structure of Titan's Upper Atmosphere

Dec 2011

adsabs.harvard.edu/cgi-bin/nph-data_query?bibcode=2011agufm.p13a1656s&link_type=abstract

American Geophysical Union, Fall Meeting 2011, abstract #P13A-1656

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[6281] Planetary Sciences: Solar System Objects / Titan

Scientific paper

The processes that determine the vertical structure of Titan's upper atmosphere may be substantially different from processes controlling other dense atmospheres in our solar system. Titan's distance from the sun means that solar forcing is relatively weak and the interaction between Titan's atmosphere and Saturn's variable magnetosphere may be significant source of energy for Titan's upper atmosphere. Vertical temperature profiles derived from INMS neutral density profiles from over 31 passes show that the thermal structure of Titan's upper atmosphere is highly variable. In many flybys the thermal structure exhibits wave-like features with amplitudes of 5 to 20 K and vertical wavelengths of 100 to 200 km. The temperature of the thermosphere is not well organized with latitude, season, or solar zenith angle indicating that something other than solar heating controls the thermospheric temperature. Previous studies have indicated changes in magnetospheric ion precipitation in regions of Saturn's magnetosphere may be able to explain the large temperature differences between subsequent flybys; however, ion impact heating rates are much less than solar heating rates at all altitudes. In addition, structures in the temperature profile that suggest localized plasma heating do not always correlate with plasma and magnetic field data indicative of particle precipitation or joule heating. Therefore, we investigate alternative heating mechanism in Titan's thermosphere. In particular, we explore whether waves propagate into the thermosphere and produce the observed thermal structures.

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