Clouds and Storms on Earth and Titan

Details Clouds and Storms on Earth and Titan Clouds and Storms on Earth and Titan

Dec 2006

adsabs.harvard.edu/cgi-bin/nph-data_query?bibcode=2006agufm.p12a..04r&link_type=abstract

American Geophysical Union, Fall Meeting 2006, abstract #P12A-04

Physics

0320 Cloud Physics And Chemistry, 5210 Planetary Atmospheres, Clouds, And Hazes (0343), 5405 Atmospheres (0343, 1060), 5445 Meteorology (3346), 6281 Titan

Scientific paper

Due to the dense predominately nitrogen atmosphere and the stability of all phases of methane in its atmosphere, Titan's atmosphere and methane cycle have often been cited as an analogy to the atmospheric reservoir of Earth's hydrologic cycle. In this talk, we explore the extent to which this analogy is appropriate, with a focus on comparative cloud structure and dynamics gleaned from observations and recent explicit cloud modeling studies. Furthermore, we attempt to classify the clouds that have been observed on Titan and make a clear distinction between clouds and haze. On Earth, clouds are classified according to their altitude (low, middle, high, or extensive vertical development) with further refinement based on appearance and dynamical underpinnings (stratiform or convective) or rain production (using the suffix -nimbus). Earth has clouds that populate every category. While Titan may have clouds in each cloud category, only a few cloud types have been observed. The first are the south polar clouds that have most commonly been likened to cumulonimbi (thunderstorms) on Earth. The nature and dynamics of terrestrial thunderstorms are described and compared to Titan's putative south polar storm clouds. Layered (stratiform) clouds that can be optically thin or thick and appear at a variety of altitudes have also been observed on Titan. These clouds have been likened to a variety of Earth cloud types, sometimes incorrectly. The classification of Titan's clouds is more than just an exercise in semantics; cloud types immediately convey information about the mechanism and physics of the clouds and the nature of the cloud environment, which we discuss. Distinct from clouds are hazes, which are composed of energetically metastable aerosols. While the Earth community recognizes the inherent physical differences between cloud and haze, this is not the case for Titan where the distinction is blurred. The distinction of haze from cloud is physically meaningful and provides integrated information about particle size, composition, and environment thermodynamics.

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