Titan's Thermal Emission: Analysis Of Near-surface Temperatures Via Mid-infrared Measurements

Details Titan's Thermal Emission: Analysis Of Near-surface Temperatures Via Mid-infrared Measurements Titan's Thermal Emission: Analysis Of Near-surface Temperatures Via Mid-infrared Measurements

Sep 2006

adsabs.harvard.edu/cgi-bin/nph-data_query?bibcode=2006dps....38.5602s&link_type=abstract

American Astronomical Society, DPS meeting #38, #56.02; Bulletin of the American Astronomical Society, Vol. 38, p.585

Astronomy and Astrophysics

Astronomy

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Scientific paper

After Courtin and Kim 2002, tropospheric and near-surface temperatures of Titan may be obtained by examining mid-infrared radiances at 300 and 500 wavenumbers (33 and 20 microns). Here, the measured radiance is (respectively) sensitive to the temperature near the tropopause and sufficient to discern variations in surface topography and emissivity. Our search, as a function of location and time, compares brightness temperatures derived from measurements by the Cassini Composite Infrared Spectrometer (CIRS) and variations of radiance as a function of Titan's rotation derived from ground-based measurements at NASA's Infrared Telescope Facility. Although the variation of the tropopause and zonal near-surface temperatures are fairly homogenous, similar to Courtin and Kim 2002, the meridional distribution of near-surface temperatures varies symmetrically from Equator to pole. While no significant thermal variations suggestive of localized hotspots have yet been observed, such diversity is suggestive of active surface geology, in support of other optical and near-infrared investigations. Although the spatial coverage of the CIRS dataset is severely limited, the approximately 10 degrees field of view (450km at the Equator) is de-convolved somewhat to extract meaningful, sub-pixel maps of Titan's surface.
Courtin, R. and Kim, S. (2002). Planet. and Sp. Sci., 50: 309-321.
The acquisition of data described here was accomplished through the coordinated effort of Cassini-Huygens project staff, Deep Space Network personnel and the CIRS instrument and science-planning teams with funding provided by the National Research Council, NASA/JPL and NASA/GSFC and the UK Particle Physics and Astronomy council.

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