Cryogenic Infrared Reflectance Spectra of Organic Ices and Their Relevance to the Surface Composition of Titan

Details Cryogenic Infrared Reflectance Spectra of Organic Ices and Their Relevance to the Surface Composition of Titan Cryogenic Infrared Reflectance Spectra of Organic Ices and Their Relevance to the Surface Composition of Titan

Sep 2006

adsabs.harvard.edu/cgi-bin/nph-data_query?bibcode=2006dps....38.5610c&link_type=abstract

American Astronomical Society, DPS meeting #38, #56.10; Bulletin of the American Astronomical Society, Vol. 38, p.586

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In order to properly interpret reflectance spectra of Titan's surface, laboratory spectra of candidate materials for comparative analysis is needed. Although the common cosmochemical species (H2O, CO2, CO, NH3, and CH4) are well represented in the spectroscopic literature, comparatively little reflectance work has been done on organics at cryotemperatures at visible to near infrared wavelengths. Measurement of reflectance is required for characterizing weak features not seen in transmittance. Such features may be important in remote sensing of planetary surfaces.
The USGS Spectroscopy Laboratory uses Nicolet FT-IR and ASD field spectrometers in combination with cryogenic chambers to acquire reflectance spectra of organic ices at approximately 80-90 ºK in a wavelength range of 0.35 to 15.5 microns. This region encompasses the fundamental absorptions and many overtones and combinations of major organic molecules including those with hydrogen-carbon, carbon-carbon (single, double and triple bonds), carbon-oxygen, oxygen-hydrogen, carbon-nitrogen, and nitrogen-hydrogen bonds. Because most organic compounds belong to families with similar structure and composition, individual species identification within a narrow wavelength range may be ambiguous. Only by measuring spectral reflectance of the pure laboratory ices from the visible through the near and mid-infrared can absorption bands unique to each be observed, cataloged and compared to planetary reflectance data.
We present here spectra of organic ices belonging to eight families, the alkanes, cycloalkanes, alkenes, alkynes, aromatics, nitriles, amines, and cyanides. Many of these compounds are predicted to coat the surface of Titan and indeed, a number of atmospheric windows, particularly at 5 microns, have allowed their identification with VIMS (Clark et al., DPS 2006, this volume). The spectral properties of these materials have applications to other solar system surfaces and remote sensing of terrestrial environments, including hazardous waste and disaster site characterization.

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