Characterization Of Possible Titan Environments Through Comparison To Cloud Top Heights Observed By Cassini

Details Characterization Of Possible Titan Environments Through Comparison To Cloud Top Heights Observed By Cassini Characterization Of Possible Titan Environments Through Comparison To Cloud Top Heights Observed By Cassini

Sep 2008

adsabs.harvard.edu/cgi-bin/nph-data_query?bibcode=2008dps....40.2302b&link_type=abstract

American Astronomical Society, DPS meeting #40, #23.02; Bulletin of the American Astronomical Society, Vol. 40, p.427

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Scientific paper

The presence of convective clouds in Titan's troposphere has been documented from ground-based observation for more than a decade. Cloud tops have been reported between 14 and 25 km. Higher resolution Cassini data show that smaller portions of the cloud system can reach up to heights of 42 km. We use the Titan Regional Atmospheric Modeling System (TRAMS) to explore environments which allow convective clouds to reach the tropopause. If these clouds are composed entirely of methane, cloud tops remain below 30 km, but for environments where the surface humidity of methane exceeds 50%, a small portion at the center of the cloud rises briefly to higher altitudes; for 70 - 80% humidity, the cloud top reaches nearly to the tropopause ( 40 km). Alternatively, methane cloud formation in the lower troposphere could be enhancing ethane cloud formation at higher altitudes. In this case, a methane environment drier than 60% humidity can still lead to high cloud tops. A number of other parameters also have noticeable affects on cloud top such as nucleation critical saturation, haze abundance, and collisional growth of cloud particles. Precipitation is present in all simulations.
This work was supported by the NASA Planetary Atmospheres program, NNX07AJ14G.

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