VIMS spectra of Titan's surface

Details VIMS spectra of Titan's surface VIMS spectra of Titan's surface

Aug 2007

adsabs.harvard.edu/cgi-bin/nph-data_query?bibcode=2007epsc.conf..633h&link_type=abstract

European Planetary Science Congress 2007, Proceedings of a conference held 20-24 August, 2007 in Potsdam, Germany. Online at ht

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The atmosphere of Titan has been puzzling the scientists for centuries. The presence of methane will perhaps find an answer thanks to the Cassini-Huygens mission. Mapping the surface is compulsory to understand the geological phenomenon ruling the topography of Saturn's satellite. VIMS (Visual and Infrared Mapping Spectrometer [Brown et al. (2003)]) is one of the tools we can use to recover both images of the surface features and hints about its chemical composition. One problem we face is the absorption and diffusion of the solar light by the atmospheric methane and aerosols. The presence of "windows" of low methane absorption allow us to probe down to the surface, with little contribution by the atmosphere. Yet the scattering by the aerosols and the remnant absorption by the methane can be corrected : we use here a radiative transfer model code by Rannou et al. (2005), updated version of the McKay et al. (1989) taking into account the microphysical evolution of the fractal aerosols. It is also further constrained by DISR data [Tomasko et al, 2005]. This model compares fairly well with the atmospheric transmission data VIMS could acquire on the flybys of Titan by Cassini. After correction, we can deduce both the qualitative surface spectrum by inversion of the geometrical albedo, and some hints about the chemical composition of several geomorphological areas we can distinguish on our maps [Rodriguez et al (in press)]. In the future, this code will also allow us to constrain Titan's clouds and atmospheric activity.

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