Inferring Compositional Variations from Titan's Ultraviolet Airglow

Details Inferring Compositional Variations from Titan's Ultraviolet Airglow Inferring Compositional Variations from Titan's Ultraviolet Airglow

Dec 2011

adsabs.harvard.edu/cgi-bin/nph-data_query?bibcode=2011agufmsm23d..01s&link_type=abstract

American Geophysical Union, Fall Meeting 2011, abstract #SM23D-01

Physics

[6009] Planetary Sciences: Comets And Small Bodies / Aurorae, Airglow, And X-Ray Emission, [6207] Planetary Sciences: Solar System Objects / Comparative Planetology, [6281] Planetary Sciences: Solar System Objects / Titan

Scientific paper

The Cassini Ultraviolet Imaging Spectrograph (UVIS) observed Titan's dayside limb on multiple occasions in 2009 and 2010. The airglow observations reveal the same variety of EUV (600-1150 Å) and FUV (1150-1900 Å) emissions arising from photoelectron excitation and photofragmentation of molecular nitrogen (N2) on Earth, but with the altitude of peak emission much higher on Titan near 1000 km altitude. Through spectral analysis we determine radiance profiles for each set of limb emissions. Volume production rates are calculated using a terrestrial airglow model adapted to Titan and calculated limb radiances are then compared to the UVIS airglow data. We find that these airglow observations can be explained by solar driven processes, although fluctuations in the observed airglow between flybys suggest compositional changes in the background atmosphere. Since the volume production rates are directly proportional to local number densities, we quantify the fluctuations in the airglow between flybys and provide constraints on N2 variations. We will compare these N2 variations to in situ observations of N2 from the Cassini Ion and Neutral Mass Spectrometer and discuss how compositional variations may be related to Titan's varying plasma environment.

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