Dissipation of Titans north polar cloud at northern spring equinox

S. Le Mouelic; P. Rannou; S. Rodriguez; Christophe Sotin; C.A. Griffith; L. Le Corre; J. W. Barnes; R. H. Brown; K. H. Baines; B. J. Buratti; Roger N. Clark; P. D. Nicholson; G. Tobie

doi:10.1016/j.pss.2011.04.006

Dissipation of Titans north polar cloud at northern spring equinox

Planetary and Space Science

By: S. Le Mouelic, P. Rannou, S. Rodriguez, Christophe Sotin, C.A. Griffith, L. Le Corre, J. W. Barnes, R. H. Brown, K. H. Baines, B. J. Buratti, Roger N. Clark, P. D. Nicholson, and G. Tobie

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.pss.2011.04.006

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Abstract

Saturn's Moon Titan has a thick atmosphere with a meteorological cycle. We report on the evolution of the giant cloud system covering its north pole using observations acquired by the Visual and Infrared Mapping Spectrometer onboard the Cassini spacecraft. A radiative transfer model in spherical geometry shows that the clouds are found at an altitude between 30 and 65 km. We also show that the polar cloud system vanished progressively as Titan approached equinox in August 2009, revealing at optical wavelengths the underlying sea known as Kraken Mare. This decrease of activity suggests that the north-polar downwelling has begun to shut off. Such a scenario is compared with the Titan global circulation model of Rannou et al. (2006), which predicts a decrease of cloud coverage in northern latitudes at the same period of time.

Additional publication details
Publication type	Article
Publication Subtype	Journal Article
Title	Dissipation of Titans north polar cloud at northern spring equinox
Series title	Planetary and Space Science
DOI	10.1016/j.pss.2011.04.006
Volume	60
Issue	1
Year Published	2012
Language	English
Publisher	Elsevier
Description	7 p.
First page	86
Last page	92
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