Observations of a Stationary Mid-Latitude Cloud System on Titan

Details Observations of a Stationary Mid-Latitude Cloud System on Titan Observations of a Stationary Mid-Latitude Cloud System on Titan

2010-03-12

arxiv.org/abs/1003.2657v1

Astronomy and Astrophysics

Astrophysics

Earth and Planetary Astrophysics

Accepted for publication in Icarus

Scientific paper

10.1016/j.icarus.2010.03.006

We report the observation of a cloud system on Titan that remained localized near 40S latitude and 60W longitude for at least 34 hours. Ground-based observations obtained with the SINFONI imaging spectrograph at the Very Large Telescope over 4 consecutive nights recorded the lifetime and altitude of the unresolved cloud system. Concomitant measurements made by Cassini/VIMS over 3 hours resolved changes in the altitude and opacity of individual regions within the system during this time. Clouds are measured from 13 to 37 km altitude with optical depths per pixel ranging from $\tau$=0.13 to 7. Short timescale rise times are consistent with previous measurements of the evolution of mid-latitude clouds; however the long timescale localization of the cloud structure is unexplained. We speculate about the role of meso-scale circulation in relation to cloud formation.

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