The Effect of Large-Scale Dynamics on Titan's Mid-Latitude Clouds

Details The Effect of Large-Scale Dynamics on Titan's Mid-Latitude Clouds The Effect of Large-Scale Dynamics on Titan's Mid-Latitude Clouds

May 2006

adsabs.harvard.edu/cgi-bin/nph-data_query?bibcode=2006agusm.u52a..05m&link_type=abstract

American Geophysical Union, Fall Meeting 2007, abstract #U52A-05

Physics

5405 Atmospheres (0343, 1060), 6281 Titan, 0343 Planetary Atmospheres (5210, 5405, 5704)

Scientific paper

The recent discovery of mid-latitude tropospheric clouds on Titan has caused much excitement about the roles of surface sources of methane. Localized surface sources, such as methane geysers or "cryovolcanoes", might supply enough methane to trigger cloud formation. The clouds may also be due to convergence by the mean meridional circulation. We present results of an axisymmetric global circulation model with a simplified suite of atmospheric physics forced by seasonally varying insolation. We find for a plausible range of conditions that while dynamics reduces the intensity of convection, it is not able to fully suppress convection anywhere in the summer hemisphere. The large-scale updraft of the mean meridional circulation occupies a narrow latitude band and could be a source of large-scale condensation, but it transitions to mid-latitudes far too late in the season to explain the already observed mid-latitude clouds. Since the presence of methane in any convecting region should trigger cloud formation, we conclude the observed distribution of mid-latitude cloud activity is likely the result of localized surface sources of methane.

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