Titan's Surface Properties: Correlations Among DISR, RADAR And VIMS Observations

Details Titan's Surface Properties: Correlations Among DISR, RADAR And VIMS Observations Titan's Surface Properties: Correlations Among DISR, RADAR And VIMS Observations

Sep 2006

adsabs.harvard.edu/cgi-bin/nph-data_query?bibcode=2006dps....38.5208s&link_type=abstract

American Astronomical Society, DPS meeting #38, #52.08; Bulletin of the American Astronomical Society, Vol. 38, p.580

Astronomy and Astrophysics

Astronomy

Scientific paper

Titan's vast equatorial fields of longitudinal dunes seen in radar images (Lorenz et al. 2006) correlate with one of two dark surface units discriminated as “ brown” and "blue” in color composites (RGB as 2.0, 1.6, 1.3 μm) of near-IR spectral cubes. Earth-based spectroscopy (Griffith et al. 2003) shows a surface consistent with dirty H2O ice; VIMS data show more evidence of H2O ice in darker than brighter units (McCord et al. 2006). Our work shows that relative to the VIMS dark blue unit, the albedo of the dark brown unit is lower at 1.3 μm, higher at 2.0 μm, shows less evidence of water ice, and correlates with the radar-dark dunes. This suggests that the dunes are dryer, higher in hydrocarbon or nitrile composition. VIMS bright units show even less evidence of H2O, inferred to consist of very fine tholin dust. If the rate of deposition of hydrocarbons is 0.1 μm/yr (Yung et al. 1984), the surface would be coated (optically) in a few years unless cleansing processes are active. The dunes must be mobile on this timescale to prevent accumulation of bright coatings. Likewise fluvial/pluvial processes every few decades must be cleaning the dark floors of the incised channels and dark scoured plains at the Huygens landing site. In this model Xanadu is a large inactive region where eolian, fluvial, pluvial activity is currently at a low ebb. Huygens landing in a region of the dark blue materials a few kilometers south of bright highlands and about 30 km south of the nearest occurrence of the VIMS-dark-brown Radar-dunes unit. References: Lorenz, R. D., et al., Science, 312, 2006; Griffith, C. A., et al., Science 300, 2003; McCord, T. B., et al., Pl. Sp. Sci. in press, 2006; Yung, Y. L., et al., Ap. J. Supp, 55, 1984.

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