Astronomy and Astrophysics – Astronomy
Scientific paper
Sep 2009
adsabs.harvard.edu/cgi-bin/nph-data_query?bibcode=2009dps....41.3303g&link_type=abstract
American Astronomical Society, DPS meeting #41, #33.03
Astronomy and Astrophysics
Astronomy
Scientific paper
Cassini/Huygens measurements of Titan's troposphere are limited to spectral images of Titan's clouds, several temperature profiles, and one vertical profile of Titan's methane abundance, measured on a summer afternoon in Titan's tropical atmosphere. Here we discuss thermodynamic and radiative transfer analyses of these data sets to investigate Titan's methane cycle. We predict no widespread variations in the methane humidity in the tropical atmosphere based on the availability of energy for evaporation. The thermodynamics of Titan's atmosphere at the landing site indicates a largely stable atmosphere capable of weak convection and clouds below 30 km altitude. We have detected five discrete clouds in the tropical atmosphere. The morphologies of these clouds resemble the high latitude methane clouds, except that they are much lower (below 26 km altitude), consistent with their having formed convectively in the conditions measured at the probe landing site. The Huygens and Cassini observations of Titan's atmosphere, taken together, suggest that Titan has two distinct climates: a docile and largely dry and unchanging tropical climate, and an occasionally stormy and seasonably variable polar climate. These observations will be discussed along with measurements of Titan's landing site, which indicate, in contrast, drainage features formed by rainfall. We find that this moon's weather and surface-to-atmosphere exchange of volatiles differs from the manifestation of these processes on Earth, largely as a result of the different fundamental properties of these planetary bodies.
Cassini Vims Team
Griffith Caitlin Ann
Penteado Paulo F.
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