Astronomy and Astrophysics – Astronomy
Scientific paper
Oct 2010
adsabs.harvard.edu/cgi-bin/nph-data_query?bibcode=2010dps....42.3603s&link_type=abstract
American Astronomical Society, DPS meeting #42, #36.03; Bulletin of the American Astronomical Society, Vol. 42, p.1065
Astronomy and Astrophysics
Astronomy
Scientific paper
The determination of Titan's surface chemical composition is critical in order to understand its geology and investigate the interactions between the interior, the surface and the atmosphere. Cassini/VIMS acquired many spectral images taken within the seven atmospheric methane windows (where the methane absorption is weak) that revealed the complexity of Titan's surface from several flybys. In order to extract the surface properties from these images, the contribution of Titan's extended, hazy and dense atmosphere needs to be clearly defined. We apply empirical methods, such as that of "differential spectroscopy” including an atmosphere-subtracted method and contrast analysis, on two potentially active regions on Titan, Tui Regio (20°S, 130°W), a 1,500-km long flow-like figure and Hotei Regio (26°S, 78°W), a 700-km wide volcanic-like terrain, which have been proposed as candidates for cryovolcanism. With our methods, we have managed to reduce the effect of the contribution of the atmosphere within the atmospheric methane windows and focus on the real alterations in surface composition. We find that the flow-like area in Tui Regio presents significantly higher albedo values than the surrounding region. Regarding Hotei Regio, the images before subtraction taken at the wavelengths corresponding to atmospheric methane windows, showed that the possible cryovolcanic terrain that seems to include caldera structures, which probably formed from cryovolcanic processes under tectonic zones of weakness, presents major differences of albedo values amongst the bright, dark and semi-dark areas. In addition, the analysis of new images obtained using the empirical methods, showed that the areas present different albedos, although the differences among the isolated areas are smaller than in the data before subtraction. As expected the cryovolcanic terrain presents higher albedo values, while the caldera-like structures present medium values, lying almost in the average between the brighter (''volcanic area'') and the darker (''primal surface'') at most wavelengths.
Bampasidis Georgios
Bratsolis Emmanuel
Coustenis Athena
Hirtzig Mathieu
Kyriakopoulos Konstantinos
No associations
LandOfFree
Potentially Active Regions On Titan: Application Of Differential Spectroscopy On Cassini/vims Data. does not yet have a rating. At this time, there are no reviews or comments for this scientific paper.
If you have personal experience with Potentially Active Regions On Titan: Application Of Differential Spectroscopy On Cassini/vims Data., we encourage you to share that experience with our LandOfFree.com community. Your opinion is very important and Potentially Active Regions On Titan: Application Of Differential Spectroscopy On Cassini/vims Data. will most certainly appreciate the feedback.
Profile ID: LFWR-SCP-O-1227914