The Cassini VIMS Titan Photometric Control Network: Relevance to Understanding Titan's Surface and Atmosphere

Details The Cassini VIMS Titan Photometric Control Network: Relevance to Understanding Titan's Surface and Atmosphere The Cassini VIMS Titan Photometric Control Network: Relevance to Understanding Titan's Surface and Atmosphere

Dec 2005

adsabs.harvard.edu/cgi-bin/nph-data_query?bibcode=2005agufm.p44a..05n&link_type=abstract

American Geophysical Union, Fall Meeting 2005, abstract #P44A-05

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6005 Atmospheres (1060), 6055 Surfaces, 6063 Volcanism (5480, 8450), 6280 Saturnian Satellites, 6281 Titan

Scientific paper

The Cassini Saturn orbiter has completed six close flybys of Titan since July 2004. The Visual and Infrared Mapping Spectrometer on the spacecraft is able to image Titan's surface at discrete wavelength bands in the spectral range 0.4-5.2 microns where methane, the principal absorbing gas in the atmosphere, is transparent. Using data from the first five Titan flybys we established a preliminary network of 48 photometric control points on Titan's surface which we have used to make preliminary inferences about the normal reflectance of Titan's surface units. These control points are divided evenly into about four overall reflectance classes which span the maximum and minimum of the observed surface reflectance (Nelson et al, 2005). We have increased the size of this network as previously unseen regions of the surface are observed at each successive flyby. Our objective is to observe each control point repeatedly at each flyby at different incident, emission and phase angle. This network will provide a basis on which the photometric function of the surface can be studied in conjunction with the scattering properties of Titan's atmospheric haze. We have also used this network to search for changes in the reflectance of the surface units that may not be related to angular scattering properties but to surface or atmospheric activity. We have already identified clearly at least one regional change in reflectance, spectrum and size which may be related to cloud activity or to surface changes that have occurred from one Titan flyby to another This work performed at JPL under contract with NASA Nelson et al, 2005, submitted to Planetary and Space Science

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