Structure of Titan's Stratosphere from the 28 SGR Occultation

Details Structure of Titan's Stratosphere from the 28 SGR Occultation Structure of Titan's Stratosphere from the 28 SGR Occultation

Sep 1996

adsabs.harvard.edu/cgi-bin/nph-data_query?bibcode=1996dps....28.2007s&link_type=abstract

American Astronomical Society, DPS meeting #28, #20.07; Bulletin of the American Astronomical Society, Vol. 28, p.1130

Astronomy and Astrophysics

Astronomy

Scientific paper

The occultation of the bright star 28 Sgr (V=5.5) by Titan on July 3, 1989 provided an exceptional opportunity for probing the upper atmosphere of Titan at altitudes ranging from ~ 280 to 500 km ( ~ 1-130 mu bar). [Sicardy et al., Nature 343, 350 (1990); Hubbard et al., Nature 343, 353 (1990) and Hubbard et al., A.&A. 269, 541 (1993)]. While the previous analyses provided global stratospheric temperature profiles, Titan's general shape, zonal wind estimates and aerosol properties, the present work focuses on the local temperature structures as a function of altitude T(z). A dozen good quality light curves provide us with ingress and egress cuts in the atmosphere, with mutual separations ranging from 15 to 1700 km on each side of the satellite. Two conspicuous inversion layers (a sudden increase of T with z) are visible at altitudes of 425 and 455 km in all profiles, and are thus global features of the atmosphere. More localized structures are also observed, with negative gradients partial T/partial z saturated by the adiabatic lapse rate. The correlation between these smaller structures decreases over a scale of ~ 300 km in the horizontal direction. The power spectra of T(z) exhibit a power law behavior with index q= -3 between frequencies ~ 100(-1) and 10(-1) km(-1) , reminiscent of saturated gravity wave spectra in the Earth's stratosphere [Smith et al., J. Atmos. Sci. 44, 1404 (1987)]. We discuss the existence of such waves in Titan's stratosphere. We provide density profiles n(z) in the altitude range 330--470 km. No local deviations (relative to a smooth exponential atmosphere) larger than 5% are observed in this range. Possible effects on the acceleration of the Huygens probe during entry are estimated.

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