The Evolution of Titan's Mid-Latitude Clouds

Griffith, C. A.; Penteado, P.; Baines, K. H.; Drossart, P.; Barnes, Jason W.; Bellucci, G.; Bibring, J. P.; Brown, R. H.; Buratti, B. J.; Capaccioni, F.; Cerroni, P.; Clark, R. N.; Combes, M.; Coradini, A.; Cruikshank, D. P.; Formisano, V.; Jaumann, R.; Langevin, Y.; Matson, D. L.; McCord, T. B.; Mennella, V.; Nelson, Robert M.; Nicholson, P. D.; Sicardy, B.; Sotin, C.; Soderblom, Laurence A.; Kursinski, R.

doi:10.1126/science.1117702

Cited by 137 publications

(147 citation statements)

References 23 publications

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“…Clouds of methane can indicate regions of convection (e.g., Griffith et al, 2005), polar subsidence , or evaporation from lakes (e.g., $ Accepted for publication on May 22, 2015 Email address: mate@berkeley.edu (MátéÁdámkovics) URL: http://astro.berkeley.edu/~madamkov (MátéÁdámkovics) Brown et al, 2009;Turtle et al, 2009), while the formation of large scale methane cloud systems are diagnostic of atmospheric dynamics via their morphology (Mitchell et al, 2011) and how they evolve with time (Ádámkovics et al, 2010;Turtle et al, 2011a). The amount of methane near the surface is an important factor in triggering convective cloud formation (Barth and Rafkin, 2007) and in determining the strength of storms (Hueso and Sánchez-Lavega, 2006).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Meridional variation in tropospheric methane on Titan observed with AO spectroscopy at Keck and VLT

Ádámkovics

Mitchell

Hayes

et al. 2016

Icarus

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The spatial distribution of the tropospheric methane on Titan was measured using near-infrared spectroscopy. Ground-based observations at 1.5 µm (H-band) were performed during the same night using instruments with adaptive optics at both the W. M. Keck Observatory and at the Paranal Observatory on 17 July 2014 UT. The integral field observations with SINFONI on the VLT covered the entire H-band at moderate resolving power, R = λ/∆λ ≈ 1, 500, while the Keck observations were performed with NIRSPAO near 1.5525 µm at higher resolution, R ≈ 25, 000. The moderate resolution observations are used for flux calibration and for the determination of model parameters that can be degenerate in the interpretation of high resolution spectra. Line-by-line calculations of CH 4 and CH 3 D correlated k distributions from the HITRAN 2012 database were used, which incorporate revised line assignments near 1.5 µm. We fit the surface albedo and aerosol distributions in the VLT SINFONI observations that cover the entire H-band window and used these quantities to constrain the models of the high-resolution Keck NIRSPAO spectra when retrieving the methane abundances. Cassini VIMS images of the polar regions, acquired on 20 July 2014 UT, are used to validate the assumption that the opacity of tropospheric aerosol is relatively uniform below 10 km. We retrieved methane abundances at latitudes between 42 • S and 80 • N. The tropospheric methane in the Southern mid-latitudes was enhanced by a factor of ∼10-40% over the nominal profile that was measured using the GCMS on Huygens. The Northern hemisphere had ∼90% of the nominal methane abundance up to polar latitudes (80 • N). These measurements suggest that a source of saturated polar air is equilibrating with dryer conditions at lower latitudes.

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Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Meridional variation in tropospheric methane on Titan observed with AO spectroscopy at Keck and VLT

Ádámkovics

Mitchell

Hayes

et al. 2016

Icarus

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“…Heavy rainfall may ultimately cause the midlatitudes' bland contrasts. Convective storms [45] have been seen regularly at 40 • south latitude throughout the Cassini mission [25,122,123] and are predicted to move to 40 • north in the coming season [103]. While this storm belt and the blandlands spatially correlate, whether they are causally related is unclear.…”

Section: Huygensmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…[81]) or subsurface flow (e.g. [51]) following rainstorms [45,113]. Surface moisture at the Huygens landing site [111] also evidences an active methane-based hydrological cycle.…”

Section: Task 12bmentioning

confidence: 99%

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AVIATR—Aerial Vehicle for In-situ and Airborne Titan Reconnaissance

et al. 2011

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We describe a mission concept for a stand-alone Titan airplane mission: Aerial Vehicle for In-situ and Airborne Titan Reconnaissance (AVI-ATR). With independent delivery and direct-to-Earth communications, AVI-ATR could contribute to Titan science either alone or as part of a sustained Titan Exploration Program. As a focused mission, AVIATR as we have envisioned it would concentrate on the science that an airplane can do best: exploration of Titan's global diversity. We focus on surface geology/hydrology and lower-atmospheric structure and dynamics. With a carefully chosen set of seven instruments-2 near-IR cameras, 1 near-IR spectrometer, a RADAR altimeter, an atmospheric structure suite, a haze sensor, and a raindrop detector-AVIATR could accomplish a significant subset of the scientific objectives of the aerial element of flagship studies. The AVIATR spacecraft stack is composed of a Space Vehicle (SV) for cruise, an Entry Vehicle (EV) for entry and descent, and the Air Vehicle (AV) to fly in Titan's atmosphere. Using an Earth-Jupiter gravity assist trajectory delivers the spacecraft to Titan in 7.5 years, after which the AVIATR AV would operate for a 1-Earthyear nominal mission. We propose a novel 'gravity battery' climb-then-glide strategy to store energy for optimal use during telecommunications sessions. We would optimize our science by using the flexibility of the airplane platform, generating context data and stereo pairs by flying and banking the AV instead

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“…On Titan, only 10% of incident sunlight, compared to Earth's 60%, reaches Titan's surface to drive weather. Despite the fact that the radiative time constant (∼140 Earth years) exceeds Titan's year (29.5 Earth years), large convective storms are observed to develop in Titan's atmosphere, apparently varying with season [13]. Images of clouds from Earth-based observatories and by Cassini, indicate a peculiar and unexpected pattern: over the approximate decade of observations, clouds have appeared most regularly south of 60 • S latitude, in the North polar region (http://saturn.jpl.nasa.gov/multimedia/images/ image-details.cfm?imageID=2470 ) and in a band around 40 • S latitude.…”

Section: Titan's Neutral Atmospherementioning

confidence: 99%

TandEM: Titan and Enceladus mission

et al. 2008

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International audienceTandEM was proposed as an L-class (large) mission in response to ESA's Cosmic Vision 2015-2025 Call, and accepted for further studies, with the goal of exploring Titan and Enceladus. The mission concept is to perform in situ investigations of two worlds tied together by location and properties, whose remarkable natures have been partly revealed by the ongoing Cassini-Huygens mission. These bodies still hold mysteries requiring a complete exploration using a variety of vehicles and instruments. TandEM is an ambitious mission because its targets are two of the most exciting and challenging bodies in the Solar System. It is designed to build on but exceed the scientific and technological accomplishments of the Cassini-Huygens mission, exploring Titan and Enceladus in ways that are not currently possible (full close-up and in situ coverage over long periods of time). In the current mission architecture, TandEM proposes to deliver two medium-sized spacecraft to the Saturnian system. One spacecraft would be an orbiter with a large host of instruments which would perform several Enceladus flybys and deliver penetrators to its surface before going into a dedicated orbit around Titan alone, while the other spacecraft would carry the Titan in situ investigation components, i.e. a hot-air balloon (Montgolfière) and possibly several landing probes to be delivered through the atmospher

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The Evolution of Titan's Mid-Latitude Clouds

Cited by 137 publications

References 23 publications

Meridional variation in tropospheric methane on Titan observed with AO spectroscopy at Keck and VLT

Meridional variation in tropospheric methane on Titan observed with AO spectroscopy at Keck and VLT

AVIATR—Aerial Vehicle for In-situ and Airborne Titan Reconnaissance

TandEM: Titan and Enceladus mission

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