Other
Scientific paper
Sep 2006
adsabs.harvard.edu/cgi-bin/nph-data_query?bibcode=2006dps....38.2719m&link_type=abstract
American Astronomical Society, DPS meeting #38, #27.19; Bulletin of the American Astronomical Society, Vol. 38, p.531
Other
Scientific paper
We present results of an axisymmetric global circulation model of Titan with a simplified suite of atmospheric physics forced by seasonally varying insolation. The recent discovery of midlatitude tropospheric clouds on Titan has caused much excitement about the roles of surface sources of methane and the global circulation in forming clouds. While localized surface sources, such as methane geysers or "cryovolcanoes", have been invoked to explain these clouds, we find in this work that clouds appear in regions of convergence by the mean meridional circulation and over the poles during solstices, where the solar forcing reaches its seasonal maximum. Other regions are inhibited from forming clouds due to dynamical transports of methane and strong subsidence. We find that for a variety of moist regimes, i.e. with the effect of methane thermodynamics included, the observed cloud features can be explained by the large-scale dynamics of the atmosphere. Clouds at the solsticial pole are found to be a robust feature of Titan's dynamics, while isolated midlatitude clouds are present exclusively in a variety of moist dynamical regimes. In all cases, even without including methane thermodynamics, our model ceases to produce polar clouds around 4-6 terrestrial years after solstices.
Caballero Rafael
Frierson Dargan M.
Mitchell Jonathan L.
Pierrehumbert Raymond T.
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