Modeling of Titan's surface processes constrained by shoreline fractal analysis and comparison with terrestrial analogs

Details Modeling of Titan's surface processes constrained by shoreline fractal analysis and comparison with terrestrial analogs Modeling of Titan's surface processes constrained by shoreline fractal analysis and comparison with terrestrial analogs

Dec 2011

adsabs.harvard.edu/cgi-bin/nph-data_query?bibcode=2011agufm.p33e1792s&link_type=abstract

American Geophysical Union, Fall Meeting 2011, abstract #P33E-1792

Other

[6281] Planetary Sciences: Solar System Objects / Titan

Scientific paper

Lacustrine features have been observed in both the north and south polar regions of Titan, by multiple instruments onboard the NASA Cassini orbiter, including the Radio Detection and Ranging (RADAR) instrument, the Visual and Infrared Mapping Spectrometer (VIMS) and the Imaging Science Subsystem (ISS). Although the RADAR and Infrared data have provided a number of lines of evidence for these features being potential lakes, their formation mechanism is currently not well understood. Using Cassini RADAR data, we have performed a statistical analysis of the shorelines of Titan's north polar lakes and found them to be closely approximated by fractal shapes, a property also demonstrated by terrestrial lake shorelines. We calculated the fractal dimensions of the shorelines via two methods: the divider/ruler method and the box-counting method, at length scales of (1-10) km and found them to average 1.27 and 1.32, respectively. The inferred power-spectral exponent of Titan's topography (β) was found to be ≤ 2, which is lower than the values obtained from the global topography of the Earth or Venus. In order to interpret the fractal dimensions of Titan's shorelines in terms of the surficial processes at work, we repeated the same fractal analysis with terrestrial analogues using C-band radar backscatter data from the Shuttle Radar Topography Mission (SRTM). We calculated and compared statistical parameters including fractal dimension, shoreline development index and a linearity index and found different lake generation mechanisms on the Earth produce shorelines with overlapping ranges of these statistical parameters. On the basis of our statistical analyses, we concluded there is no one mechanism or set of mechanisms that can be deduced to be responsible for forming the depressions enclosing the lakes on Titan. Also, irrespective of the surface process responsible for their initial formation, these Titanian lake shorelines, like their terrestrial counterparts, could have been subsequently modified by many processes which have been observed to be active on Titan. These processes include fluvial and aeolian action, tectonic activity, impact cratering, cryovolcanism and mantling (fallout of solid material from the atmosphere which blankets the surface). Many of these surface processes create lakes with relatively smooth shorelines that are initially not fractal. Over time, however, fluvial modification can introduce small-scale roughness that leads to more rugged shorelines as channels erode and deposit to create embayments along the shoreline. Landscape evolution modeling has proven to be very useful for testing alternative hypotheses for surface change and for determining the linkages between form and process on both Earth and other solar system bodies. We intend to simulate several processes in our landscape evolution modeling for Titan. The results of this modeling, in conjunction with the statistical analysis of Titan's shorelines and terrestrial analogs, will be used to constrain the spatial distribution of surface process types and study the evolution of lake shorelines on Titan.

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