Dissipation of Titans north polar cloud at northern spring equinox

Stéphane Le Mouélic; Pascal Rannou; Sébastien Rodriguez; Christophe Sotin; Caitlin A. Griffith; Lucille Le Corre; Jason W. Barnes; Robert H. Brown; Kevin H. Baines; Bonnie J. Buratti; Roger N. Clark; Philip D. Nicholson; Gabriel Tobie

doi:10.1016/j.pss.2011.04.006

Dissipation of Titans north polar cloud at northern spring equinox

Stéphane Le Mouélic, Pascal Rannou, Sébastien Rodriguez, Christophe Sotin, Caitlin A. Griffith, Lucille Le Corre, Jason W. Barnes, Robert H. Brown, Kevin H. Baines, Bonnie J. Buratti, Roger N. Clark, Philip D. Nicholson, Gabriel Tobie

Research output: Contribution to journal › Article › peer-review

32 Scopus citations

Abstract

Saturns 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.

Original language	English (US)
Pages (from-to)	86-92
Number of pages	7
Journal	Planetary and Space Science
Volume	60
Issue number	1
DOIs	https://doi.org/10.1016/j.pss.2011.04.006
State	Published - Jan 2012

Keywords

Cassini
Cloud
Meteorology
Titan
VIMS

ASJC Scopus subject areas

Astronomy and Astrophysics
Space and Planetary Science

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10.1016/j.pss.2011.04.006

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title = "Dissipation of Titans north polar cloud at northern spring equinox",

abstract = "Saturns 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.",

keywords = "Cassini, Cloud, Meteorology, Titan, VIMS",

author = "{Le Mou{\'e}lic}, St{\'e}phane and Pascal Rannou and S{\'e}bastien Rodriguez and Christophe Sotin and Griffith, {Caitlin A.} and {Le Corre}, Lucille and Barnes, {Jason W.} and Brown, {Robert H.} and Baines, {Kevin H.} and Buratti, {Bonnie J.} and Clark, {Roger N.} and Nicholson, {Philip D.} and Gabriel Tobie",

note = "Funding Information: This work benefited from financial supports from the Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique , Institut National des Sciences de l'Univers , from the French Centre National d'Etudes Spatiales (CNES) and from the ANR (project ANR-07-BLAN-0127 exoclimat). The authors wish to thank E. Turtle and an anonymous reviewer for their thorough reviews.",

year = "2012",

month = jan,

doi = "10.1016/j.pss.2011.04.006",

language = "English (US)",

volume = "60",

pages = "86--92",

journal = "Planetary and Space Science",

issn = "0032-0633",

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number = "1",

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T1 - Dissipation of Titans north polar cloud at northern spring equinox

AU - Le Mouélic, Stéphane

AU - Rannou, Pascal

AU - Rodriguez, Sébastien

AU - Sotin, Christophe

AU - Griffith, Caitlin A.

AU - Le Corre, Lucille

AU - Barnes, Jason W.

AU - Brown, Robert H.

AU - Baines, Kevin H.

AU - Buratti, Bonnie J.

AU - Clark, Roger N.

AU - Nicholson, Philip D.

AU - Tobie, Gabriel

N1 - Funding Information: This work benefited from financial supports from the Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique , Institut National des Sciences de l'Univers , from the French Centre National d'Etudes Spatiales (CNES) and from the ANR (project ANR-07-BLAN-0127 exoclimat). The authors wish to thank E. Turtle and an anonymous reviewer for their thorough reviews.

PY - 2012/1

Y1 - 2012/1

N2 - Saturns 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.

AB - Saturns 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.

KW - Cassini

KW - Cloud

KW - Meteorology

KW - Titan

KW - VIMS

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Dissipation of Titans north polar cloud at northern spring equinox

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