Discovery of lake-effect clouds on Titan

Details Discovery of lake-effect clouds on Titan Discovery of lake-effect clouds on Titan

2008-09-10

arxiv.org/abs/0809.1841v1

Astronomy and Astrophysics

Astrophysics

11 pages, 3 figures

Scientific paper

10.1029/2008GL035964

Images from instruments on Cassini as well as from telescopes on the ground reveal the presence of sporadic small-scale cloud activity in the cold late-winter north polar of Saturn's large moon Titan. These clouds lie underneath the previously discovered uniform polar cloud attributed to a quiescent ethane cloud at ~40 km and appear confined to the same latitudes as those of the largest known hydrocarbon lakes at the north pole of Titan. The physical properties of these clouds suggest that they are due to methane convection and condensation. Such convection has not been predicted for the cold winter pole, but can be caused by a process in many ways analogous to terrestrial lake-effect clouds. The lakes on Titan are a key connection between the surface and the meteorological cycle.

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