Specular Scattering on Titan observed by Cassini VIMS: Liquids in the North Polar Region

Details Specular Scattering on Titan observed by Cassini VIMS: Liquids in the North Polar Region Specular Scattering on Titan observed by Cassini VIMS: Liquids in the North Polar Region

Dec 2009

adsabs.harvard.edu/cgi-bin/nph-data_query?bibcode=2009agufm.p54c..03s&link_type=abstract

American Geophysical Union, Fall Meeting 2009, abstract #P54C-03

Physics

[6281] Planetary Sciences: Solar System Objects / Titan

Scientific paper

After more than 50 close flybys of Titan by the Cassini spacecraft, it has become clear that features similar in morphology to terrestrial lakes and seas exist on Titan’s surface. Widespread evidence for fluvial erosion, presumably driven by precipitation of liquid methane from Titan’s dense atmosphere is also apparent from these data. Lake-like features have thus far only been observed in Titan’s polar regions. Of these presumed lakes, liquids have only been conclusively identified in Ontario Lacus, a relatively small lake in Titan’s south-polar region. As Titan progresses into northern summer, the much larger lake-like features in the north-polar region identified in Radar data, are becoming directly illuminated for the first time since the arrival of Cassini. This allows the Cassini optical instruments to search for specular reflections to confirm the presence of liquids in these presumed lakes. On July 8th, 2009 the Cassini Visual and Infrared Mapping Spectrometer (VIMS) successfully detected a specular reflection in the north-polar region of Titan. The signal is restricted to the VIMS channels at ~5 µm where most of the incident light reaches the surface without being scattered by aerosols in Titan’s atmosphere. By mapping these observations onto the RADAR image from the T19 flyby, the VIMS specular reflection was found to be associated with the western part of Kraken Mare, one of Titan’s large northern lakes, indicating the lakes surface is mirror like, strongly suggesting it is liquid.

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