TY - JOUR
T1 - Convective plumes and the scarcity of Titan's clouds
AU - Lorenz, Ralph D.
AU - Griffith, Caitlin A.
AU - Lunine, Jonathan I.
AU - McKay, Christopher P.
AU - Rennò, Nilton O.
PY - 2005/1/16
Y1 - 2005/1/16
N2 - We show that simple thermodynamic models of convective plumes predict the area fraction of convective plumes (i.e., updrafts) in Titan's atmosphere to be ∼12 smaller than on Earth. This result is in agreement with predictions by sophisticated dynamical models and with the relative tropospheric cloud cover, which is only ∼1% on Titan. Rainstorms on Titan, being so rare, may be violent.
AB - We show that simple thermodynamic models of convective plumes predict the area fraction of convective plumes (i.e., updrafts) in Titan's atmosphere to be ∼12 smaller than on Earth. This result is in agreement with predictions by sophisticated dynamical models and with the relative tropospheric cloud cover, which is only ∼1% on Titan. Rainstorms on Titan, being so rare, may be violent.
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U2 - 10.1029/2004GL021415
DO - 10.1029/2004GL021415
M3 - Article
AN - SCOPUS:16344369276
SN - 0094-8276
VL - 32
SP - 1
EP - 4
JO - Geophysical Research Letters
JF - Geophysical Research Letters
IS - 1
ER -