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1.
Since Saturn orbital insertion in July 2004, the Cassini orbiter has been observing Titan throughout most of the northern winter season (October 2002–August 2009) and the beginning of spring, allowing a detailed monitoring of Titan’s cloud coverage at high spatial resolution with close flybys on a monthly basis. This study reports on the analysis of all the near-infrared images of Titan’s clouds acquired by the Visual and Infrared Mapping Spectrometer (VIMS) during 67 targeted flybys of Titan between July 2004 and April 2010.The VIMS observations show numerous sporadic clouds at southern high and mid-latitudes, rare clouds in the equatorial region, and reveal a long-lived cloud cap above the north pole, ubiquitous poleward of 60°N. These observations allow us to follow the evolution of the cloud coverage during almost a 6-year period including the equinox, and greatly help to further constrain global circulation models (GCMs). After 4 years of regular outbursts observed by Cassini between 2004 and 2008, southern polar cloud activity started declining, and completely ceased 1 year before spring equinox. The extensive cloud system over the north pole, stable between 2004 and 2008, progressively fractionated and vanished as Titan entered into northern spring. At southern mid-latitudes, clouds were continuously observed throughout the VIMS observing period, even after equinox, in a latitude band between 30°S and 60°S. During the whole period of observation, only a dozen clouds were observed closer to the equator, though they were slightly more frequent as equinox approached.We also investigated the distribution of clouds with longitude. We found that southern polar clouds, before disappearing in mid-2008, were systematically concentrated in the leading hemisphere of Titan, in particular above and to the east of Ontario Lacus, the largest reservoir of hydrocarbons in the area. Clouds are also non-homogeneously distributed with longitude at southern mid-latitudes. The n = 2-mode wave pattern of the distribution, observed since 2003 by Earth-based telescopes and confirmed by our Cassini observations, may be attributed to Saturn’s tides.Although the latitudinal distribution of clouds is now relatively well reproduced and understood by the GCMs, the non-homogeneous longitudinal distributions and the evolution of the cloud coverage with seasons still need investigation. If the observation of a few single clouds at the tropics and at northern mid-latitudes late in winter and at the start of spring cannot be further interpreted for the moment, the obvious shutdown of the cloud activity at Titan’s poles provides clear signs of the onset of the general circulation turnover that is expected to accompany the beginning of Titan’s northern spring. According to our GCM, the persistence of clouds at certain latitudes rather suggests a ‘sudden’ shift in near future of the meteorology into the more illuminated hemisphere. Finally, the observed seasonal change in cloud activity occurred with a significant time lag that is not predicted by our model. This may be due to an overall methane humidity at Titan’s surface higher than previously expected.  相似文献   

2.
Nearly all adaptive optics images of Titan taken between December 2001 and November 2004 showed tropospheric clouds located within 30° of the south pole. We report here on a dissipation of Titan's south polar clouds observed in twenty-nine Keck and Gemini images taken between December 2004 and April 2005. The near complete lack of south polar cloud activity during this time, and subsequent resurgence months later at generally higher latitudes, may be the beginning of seasonal change in Titan's weather. The ∼5 month decrease in cloud activity may also have been caused by methane rainout from a large cloud event in October 2004. Understanding the seasonal evolution of Titan's clouds, and of any precipitation associated with them, is essential for interpreting the geological observations of fluid flow features observed over a wide range of Titan latitudes with the Cassini/Huygens spacecraft.  相似文献   

3.
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.  相似文献   

4.
We report the observation of a cloud system on Titan that remained localized near 40°S latitude and 60°W longitude for at least 34 h. Ground-based observations obtained with the SINFONI imaging spectrograph at the Very Large Telescope over four consecutive nights recorded the lifetime and altitude of the unresolved cloud system. Concomitant measurements made by Cassini/VIMS over 3 h resolved changes in the altitude and opacity of individual regions within the system during this time. Clouds are measured from 13 to 37 km altitude with optical depths per pixel ranging from τ=0.13 to 7. Short timescale rise times are consistent with previous measurements of the evolution of mid-latitude clouds; however the long timescale localization of the cloud structure is unexplained. We speculate about the role of mesoscale circulation in relation to cloud formation.  相似文献   

5.
H.G. Roe  I. de Pater 《Icarus》2004,169(2):440-461
All previous observations of seasonal change on Titan have been of physical phenomena such as clouds and haze. We present here the first observational evidence of chemical change in Titan's atmosphere. Images taken during 1999-2002 (late southern spring on Titan) with the W.M. Keck I 10-meter telescope at 8-13 μm show a significant accumulation of ethylene (C2H4) in the south polar stratosphere as well as north-south stratospheric temperature variation (colder at poles). Our observations restrict this newly discovered south polar ethylene accumulation to latitudes south of 60° S. The only other observations of the spatial distribution of C2H4 were those of Voyager I, which found a significant north polar accumulation in early northern spring. We see no build-up in the north, although the highest northern latitudes are obstructed from view in the current season. Our observations constrain any unobserved north polar accumulation of C2H4 to north of 50° N latitude. Comparison of the Voyager I results with our new results show seasonal chemical change has occurred in Titan's atmosphere.  相似文献   

6.
We use five and one-half years of limb- and nadir-viewing temperature mapping observations by the Composite Infrared Radiometer-Spectrometer (CIRS) on the Cassini Saturn orbiter, taken between July 2004 and December 2009 (LS from 293° to 4°; northern mid-winter to just after northern spring equinox), to monitor temperature changes in the upper stratosphere and lower mesosphere of Titan. The largest changes are in the northern (winter) polar stratopause, which has declined in temperature by over 20 K between 2005 and 2009. Throughout the rest of the mid to upper stratosphere and lower mesosphere, temperature changes are less than 5 K. In the southern hemisphere, temperatures in the middle stratosphere near 1 mbar increased by 1-2 K from 2004 through early 2007, then declined by 2-4 K throughout 2008 and 2009, with the changes being larger at more polar latitudes. Middle stratospheric temperatures at mid-northern latitudes show a small 1-2 K increase from 2005 through 2009. At north polar latitudes within the polar vortex, temperatures in the middle stratosphere show a ∼4 K increase during 2007, followed by a comparable decrease in temperatures in 2008 and into early 2009. The observed temperature changes in the north polar region are consistent with a weakening of the subsidence within the descending branch of the middle atmosphere meridional circulation.  相似文献   

7.
The Composite Infrared Radiometer-Spectrometer (CIRS) instrument, on the NASA Cassini Saturn orbiter, has been acquiring thermal emission spectra from the atmosphere of Titan since orbit insertion in 2004. Observation sequences for measuring stratospheric temperatures have been obtained using both a nadir mapping mode and a limb viewing mode. The limb observations give better vertical resolution, and give information from higher altitudes, while the nadir observations provide more complete longitude coverage. Because the scale height of Titan's atmosphere is large enough so that emission from a grazing ray is influenced by horizontal temperature variations in the atmosphere, we have developed a two-dimensional temperature retrieval algorithm for reducing the limb spectra, which solves simultaneously for meridional and vertical temperature variations. The analyzed nadir mapping data have sampled nearly all longitudes at latitudes from about 90° S to 60° N, providing temperatures between pressure levels of about 5 to 0.2 mbar. The limb data covers latitudes between about 75° S and 85° N, and yields temperatures between about 1 and 0.005 mbar, at a small number of longitudes. The retrieved temperatures are consistent with early results from nadir observations [Flasar, F.M., and 44 colleagues, 2005. Science 308, 975-978] between 0.5 and 5 mbar where both results are valid, with the warmest temperatures at the equator, and much stronger meridional temperature gradients in the northern (winter) hemisphere than in the southern. At higher altitudes not probed by nadir viewing, the limb data reveal that the stratopause is nearly 20 K warmer in the northern polar regions than at the equator and southern hemisphere, and that the altitude of the stratopause shifts from ≈0.1 mbar (300 km) near the equator to 0.01 mbar (400 km) poleward of about 40° N. When the gradient wind equation is used to construct a zonal mean wind, the reversal in sign of the temperature leads to capping of the winter westerly flow. The core of the resulting jet is about 190 m s−1 in magnitude, spans between 30° N and 60° N, and peaks near 0.1 mbar. Estimates of the radiative heating associated with the radiative disequilibrium lead to a meridional overturning timescale of about three Earth years.  相似文献   

8.
This study presents the latest results on the mesospheric CO2 clouds in the martian atmosphere based on observations by OMEGA and HRSC onboard Mars Express. We have mapped the mesospheric CO2 clouds during nearly three martian years of OMEGA data yielding a cloud dataset of ∼60 occurrences. The global mapping shows that the equatorial clouds are mainly observed in a distinct longitudinal corridor, at seasons Ls = 0-60° and again at and after Ls = 90°. A recent observation shows that the equatorial CO2 cloud season may start as early as at Ls = 330°. Three cases of mesospheric midlatitude autumn clouds have been observed. Two cloud shadow observations enabled the mapping of the cloud optical depth (τ = 0.01-0.6 with median values of 0.13-0.2 at λ = 1 μm) and the effective radii (mainly 1-3 μm with median values of 2.0-2.3 μm) of the cloud crystals. The HRSC dataset of 28 high-altitude cloud observations shows that the observed clouds reside mainly in the altitude range ∼60-85 km and their east-west speeds range from 15 to 107 m/s. Two clouds at southern midlatitudes were observed at an altitude range of 53-62 km. The speed of one of these southern midlatitude clouds was measured, and it exhibited west-east oriented speeds between 5 and 42 m/s. The seasonal and geographical distribution as well as the observed altitudes are mostly in line with previous work. The LMD Mars Global Climate Model shows that at the cloud altitude range (65-85 km) the temperatures exhibit significant daily variability (caused by the thermal tides) with the coldest temperatures towards the end of the afternoon. The GCM predicts the coldest temperatures of this altitude range and the season Ls = 0-30° in the longitudinal corridor where most of the cloud observations have been made. However, the model does not predict supersaturation, but the GCM-predicted winds are in fair agreement with the HRSC-measured cloud speeds. The clouds exhibit variable morphologies, but mainly cirrus-type, filamented clouds are observed (nearly all HRSC observations and most of OMEGA observations). In ∼15% of OMEGA observations, clumpy, round cloud structures are observed, but very few clouds in the HRSC dataset show similar morphology. These observations of clumpy, cumuliform-type clouds raise questions on the possibility of mesospheric convection on Mars, and we discuss this hypothesis based on Convective Available Potential Energy calculations.  相似文献   

9.
Images of Titan acquired over five nights in October 2004 using the adaptive optics system at the Keck Observatory show dramatic increases in tropospheric cloud activity at the south pole compared with all other images of Titan clouds to date. During this time, Titan's south polar clouds brightened to more than 18 times their typical values. The Cassini Ta flyby of Titan occurred as this storm was rapidly dissipating. We find that the brightness of this cloud outburst is consistent with the dramatic transient brightening of Titan observed in atmospheric windows on two nights in 1995 by Griffith et al. [Griffith, C.A., Owen, T., Miller, G.A., Geballe, T., 1998. Nature 395 (6702) 575-578] if we scale the brightness of the cloud by projecting it onto the equator. While apparently infrequent, the fact that large cloud events have been observed in different seasons of Titan's year indicates that these large storms might be a year-round phenomenon on Titan. We propose possible mechanisms to explain these occasional short-term increases in Titan's cloud activity.  相似文献   

10.
The SPICAM instrument onboard Mars Express has successfully performed two Martian years (MY 27 and MY28) of observations. Water ice cloud optical depths spatial and temporal distribution was retrieved from nadir measurements in the wavelength range 300–320 nm. During the northern spring the cloud hazes complex distribution was monitored. The clouds in the southern hemisphere formed a zonal belt in the latitude range 30–60°S. The edge of the retreating north polar hood merged with the northern tropical clouds in the range 250–350°E. The development of the aphelion cloud belt (ACB) started with the weak hazes formation (cloud optical thickness 0.1–0.3) in the equatorial region. At the end of the northern spring, the ACB cloud optical thickness reached already values of 0.3–1. The ACB decay in the end of the northern summer was accompanied with a presence of clouds in the north mid-latitudes. The expanded north polar hood merged with the north mid-latitude clouds in the eastern hemisphere. The interannual comparison indicates a decrease in cloud activity immediately after a strong dust storm in southern summer of MY28. The strong dust storms of the MY28 may also be a reason of the observed north polar hood edge shifting northward by 5°.  相似文献   

11.
We report on Cassini Imaging Science Subsystem (ISS) data correlated with Radio and Plasma Wave Science (RPWS) observations, which indicate lightning on Saturn. A rare bright cloud erupt at ∼35° South planetocentric latitude when radio emissions (Saturn Electrostatic Discharges, or SEDs) occur. The cloud consisting of few consecutive eruptions typically lasts for several weeks, and then both the cloud and the SEDs disappear. They may reappear again after several months or may stay inactive for a year. Possibly, all the clouds are produced by the same atmospheric disturbance which drifts West at 0.45 °/day. As of March 2007, four such correlated visible and radio storms have been observed since Cassini Saturn Orbit Insertion (July 2004). In all four cases the SEDs are periodic with roughly Saturn's rotation rate (h10m39), and show correlated phase relative to the times when the clouds are seen on the spacecraft-facing side of the planet, as had been shown for the 2004 storms in [Porco, C.C., and 34 colleagues, 2005. Science 307, 1243-1247]. The 2000-km-scale storm clouds erupt to unusually high altitudes and then slowly fade at high altitudes and spread at low altitudes. The onset time of individual eruptions is less than a day during which time the SEDs reach their maximum rates. This suggests vigorous atmospheric updrafts accompanied by strong precipitation and lightning. Unlike lightning on Earth and Jupiter, where considerable lightning activity is known to exist, only one latitude on Saturn has produced lightning strong enough to be detected during the two and a half years of Cassini observations. This may partly be a detection issue.  相似文献   

12.
Saturn's southern pole was observed at high resolution by the Cassini Imaging Science Subsystem (ISS) during the spacecraft insertion orbit in July 2004. Cloud tracking of individual features on images taken at a wavelength of 938 nm reveal the existence of a strong polar vortex enclosed by a jet with maximum speed of relative to System III rotation frame, and peak at 87 °S planetographic latitude. Radiative transfer models of the reflected light, based on the Cassini images complemented by Hubble Space Telescope images from March 2004, indicate that the aerosol particles in the vortex are structured vertically in three detached layers. We find two hazes and one dense cloud distributed in altitude between ∼500 mbar (top of the dense cloud) and few mbar (top of the stratospheric haze), spanning a vertical altitude range of ∼200 km. The vortex area coincides with a thermal hot spot recently reported, indicating that winds decrease with altitude above polar clouds.  相似文献   

13.
Mid-infrared limb spectra in the range 600-1400 cm−1 taken with the Composite InfraRed Spectrometer (CIRS) on-board the Cassini spacecraft were used to determine vertical profiles of HCN, HC3N, C2H2, and temperature in Titan's atmosphere. Both high (0.5 cm−1) and low (13.5 cm−1) spectral resolution data were used. The 0.5 cm−1 data gave profiles at four latitudes and the 13.5 cm−1 data gave almost complete latitudinal coverage of the atmosphere. Both datasets were found to be consistent with each other. High temperatures in the upper stratosphere and mesosphere were observed at Titan's northern winter pole and were attributed to adiabatic heating in the subsiding branch of a meridional circulation cell. On the other hand, the lower stratosphere was much colder in the north than at the equator, which can be explained by the lack of solar radiation and increased IR emission from volatile enriched air. HC3N had a vertical profile consistent with previous ground based observations at southern and equatorial latitudes, but was massively enriched near the north pole. This can also be explained in terms of subsidence at the winter pole. A boundary observed at 60° N between enriched and un-enriched air is consistent with a confining polar vortex at 60° N and HC3N's short lifetime. In the far north, layers were observed in the HC3N profile that were reminiscent of haze layers observed by Cassini's imaging cameras. HCN was also enriched over the north pole, which gives further evidence for subsidence. However, the atmospheric cross section obtained from 13.5 cm−1 data indicated a HCN enriched layer at 200-250 km, extending into the southern hemisphere. This could be interpreted as advection of polar enriched air towards the south by a meridional circulation cell. This is observed for HCN but not for HC3N due to HCN's longer photochemical lifetime. C2H2 appears to have a uniform abundance with altitude and is not significantly enriched in the north. This is consistent with observations from previous CIRS analysis that show increased abundances of nitriles and hydrocarbons but not C2H2 towards the north pole.  相似文献   

14.
Titan, Saturn's largest moon, has a thick nitrogen/methane atmosphere. The temperature and pressure conditions in Titan's atmosphere are such that the methane vapor should condense near the tropopause to form clouds. Several ground-based measurements have observed sparse cloud-like features in Titan's atmosphere, while the Cassini mission to Saturn has provided large scale images of the clouds. However, Titan's cloud formation conditions remain poorly constrained. Heterogeneous nucleation (from the vapor phase onto a solid or liquid aerosol surface) greatly enhances cloud formation relative to homogeneous nucleation. In order to elucidate the cloud formation mechanism near the tropopause, we have performed laboratory measurements of the adsorption of methane and ethane onto solid organic particles (tholins) representative of Titan's photochemical haze. We find that monolayers of methane adsorb onto tholin particles at saturation ratios less than unity. We also find that solid methane nucleates onto the adsorbed methane at a saturation ratio of S=1.07±0.008. This implies that Titan's methane clouds should form easily. This is consistent with recent measurements of the column of methane ruling out excessive methane supersaturation. In addition, we find ethane adsorbs onto tholin particles in a metastable phase prior to nucleation. However, ethane nucleation onto the adsorbed ethane occurs at a relatively high saturation ratio of S=1.36±0.08. These findings are consistent with the recent report of polar ethane clouds in Titan's lower stratosphere.  相似文献   

15.
Cloud formation along mountain ridges on Titan   总被引：1，自引：0，他引：1  
Cassini radar passes have shown a number of mountain ranges on Titan. Radar data covering approximately one quarter of Titan's surface places mountains in primarily equatorial regions with the mean height of about 900 m. The flow of air over topographic features can both trigger and enhance cloud formation. Orographically induced clouds near terrestrial mountain ranges include shallow wave clouds produced from upslope flow as well as precipitating stratus and cumulus type clouds; mountains can provide the perturbations needed to trigger convective clouds. The Titan regional atmospheric modeling system (TRAMS) has been used to explore a number of convective cloud properties and is now used to report on clouds formed when a mountain peak is placed within the model domain. Using a range of heights and surface winds compatible with Cassini/Huygens data, constraints can be placed on the scenarios in which clouds can be expected to form. Given sufficiently humid conditions (at least 50% humidity), convection is triggered. For drier environments similar to the Huygens landing site, short-lived, optically thin clouds form from air rising upslope. Precipitation is also seen in the cases of the convective clouds, which could have implications for the eroded appearance of Titan's mountains.  相似文献   

16.
The dynamics of Titan's stratosphere is discussed in this study, based on a comparison between observations by the CIRS instrument on board the Cassini spacecraft, and results of the 2-dimensional circulation model developed at the Institute Pierre-Simon Laplace, available at http://www.lmd.jussieu.fr/titanDbase [Rannou, P., Lebonnois, S., Hourdin, F., Luz, D., 2005. Adv. Space Res. 36, 2194-2198]. The comparison aims at both evaluating the model's capabilities and interpreting the observations concerning: (1) dynamical and thermal structure using temperature retrievals from Cassini/CIRS and the vertical profile of zonal wind at the Huygens landing site obtained by Huygens/DWE; and (2) vertical and latitudinal profiles of stratospheric gases deduced from Cassini/CIRS data. The modeled thermal structure is similar to that inferred from observations (Cassini/CIRS and Earth-based observations). However, the upper stratosphere (above 0.05 mbar) is systematically too hot in the 2D-CM, and therefore the stratopause region is not well represented. This bias may be related to the haze structure and to misrepresented radiative effects in this region, such as the cooling effect of hydrogen cyanide (HCN). The 2D-CM produces a strong atmospheric superrotation, with zonal winds reaching 200 m s−1 at high winter latitudes between 200 and 300 km altitude (0.1-1 mbar). The modeled zonal winds are in good agreement with retrieved wind fields from occultation observations, Cassini/CIRS and Huygens/DWE. Changes to the thermal structure are coupled to changes in the meridional circulation and polar vortex extension, and therefore affect chemical distributions, especially in winter polar regions. When a higher altitude haze production source is used, the resulting modeled meridional circulation is weaker and the vertical and horizontal mixing due to the polar vortex is less extended in latitude. There is an overall good agreement between modeled chemical distributions and observations in equatorial regions. The difference in observed vertical gradients of C2H2 and HCN may be an indicator of the relative strength of circulation and chemical loss of HCN. The negative vertical gradient of ethylene in the low stratosphere at 15° S, cannot be modeled with simple 1-dimensional models, where a strong photochemical sink in the middle stratosphere would be necessary. It is explained here by dynamical advection from the winter pole towards the equator in the low stratosphere and by the fact that ethylene does not condense. Near the winter pole (80° N), some compounds (C4H2, C3H4) exhibit an (interior) minimum in the observed abundance vertical profiles, whereas 2D-CM profiles are well mixed all along the atmospheric column. This minimum can be a diagnostic of the strength of the meridional circulation, and of the spatial extension of the winter polar vortex where strong descending motions are present. In the summer hemisphere, observed stratospheric abundances are uniform in latitude, whereas the model maintains a residual enrichment over the summer pole from the spring cell due to a secondary meridional overturning between 1 and 50 mbar, at latitudes south of 40-50° S. The strength, as well as spatial and temporal extensions of this structure are a difficulty, that may be linked to possible misrepresentation of horizontally mixing processes, due to the restricted 2-dimensional nature of the model. This restriction should also be kept in mind as a possible source of other discrepancies.  相似文献   

17.
We present an updated survey of Mercury’s putative polar ice deposits, based on high-resolution (1.5-km) imaging with the upgraded Arecibo S-band radar during 1999-2005. The north pole has now been imaged over a full range of longitude aspects, making it possible to distinguish ice-free areas from radar-shadowed areas and thus better map the distribution of radar-bright ice. The new imagery of the south pole, though derived from only a single pair of dates in 2005, improves on the pre-upgrade Arecibo imagery and reveals many additional ice features. Some medium-size craters located within 3° of the north pole show near-complete ice coverage over their floors, central peaks, and southern interior rim walls and little or no ice on their northern rim walls, while one large (90 km) crater at 85°N shows a sharp ice-cutoff line running across its central floor. All of this is consistent with the estimated polar extent of permanent shading from direct sunlight. Some craters show ice in regions that, though permanently shaded, should be too warm to maintain unprotected surface ice owing to indirect heating by reflected and reradiated sunlight. However, the ice distribution in these craters is in good agreement with models invoking insulation by a thin dust mantle. Comparisons with Goldstone X-band radar imagery indicate a wavelength dependence that could be consistent with such a dust mantle. More than a dozen small ice features have been found at latitudes between 67° and 75°. All of this low-latitude ice is probably sheltered in or under steep pole-facing crater rim walls, although, since most is located in the Mariner-unimaged hemisphere, confirmation must await imaging by the MESSENGER orbiter. These low-latitude features are concentrated toward the “cold longitudes,” possibly indicating a thermal segregation effect governed by indirect heating. The radar imagery places the corrected locations of the north and south poles at 7°W, 88.35°N and 90°W, 88.7°S, respectively, on the original Mariner-based maps.  相似文献   

18.
Cassini RADAR images of Titan’s south polar region acquired during southern summer contain lake features which disappear between observations. These features show a tenfold increases in backscatter cross-section between images acquired one year apart, which is inconsistent with common scattering models without invoking temporal variability. The morphologic boundaries are transient, further supporting changes in lake level. These observations are consistent with the exposure of diffusely scattering lakebeds that were previously hidden by an attenuating liquid medium. We use a two-layer model to explain backscatter variations and estimate a drop in liquid depth of approximately 1-m-per-year. On larger scales, we observe shoreline recession between ISS and RADAR images of Ontario Lacus, the largest lake in Titan’s south polar region. The recession, occurring between June 2005 and July 2009, is inversely proportional to slopes estimated from altimetric profiles and the exponential decay of near-shore backscatter, consistent with a uniform reduction of 4 ± 1.3 m in lake depth.Of the potential explanations for observed surface changes, we favor evaporation and infiltration. The disappearance of dark features and the recession of Ontario’s shoreline represents volatile transport in an active methane-based hydrologic cycle. Observed loss rates are compared and shown to be consistent with available global circulation models. To date, no unambiguous changes in lake level have been observed between repeat images in the north polar region, although further investigation is warranted. These observations constrain volatile flux rates in Titan’s hydrologic system and demonstrate that the surface plays an active role in its evolution. Constraining these seasonal changes represents the first step toward our understanding of longer climate cycles that may determine liquid distribution on Titan over orbital time periods.  相似文献   

19.
Using Cassini images, we examine the faint material along the orbits of Methone, Anthe and Pallene, three small moons that reside between the orbits of Mimas and Enceladus. A continuous ring of material covers the orbit of Pallene; it is visible at extremely high phase angles and appears to be localized vertically to within ±25 km of Pallene's inclined orbit. By contrast, the material associated with Anthe and Methone appears to lie in longitudinally confined arcs. The Methone arc extends over ∼10° in longitude around the satellite's position, while the Anthe arc reaches ∼20° in length. The extents of these arcs are consistent with their confinement by nearby corotation eccentricity resonances with Mimas. Anthe has even been observed to shift in longitude relative to its arc in the expected manner given the predicted librations of the moon.  相似文献   

20.
Takeshi Imamura  Yuko Ito 《Icarus》2011,211(1):498-503
A Hovmöller diagram analysis of the dust optical depth measured by the Mars Global Surveyor Thermal Emission Spectrometer shows the occurrence of quasi-periodic westwardly-propagating disturbances with timescales of 10-20 sols during summer in the south polar region of Mars. Dust clouds emerge repeatedly around the region with a latitude of around 70-80°S and a longitude of 240-300°E, move westward at speeds of 3-6 m s−1, reach the region with a longitude of 60-120°E, and finally disappear. This longitude range coincides with elevated terrains in the south polar region, and in this region an increase of dust optical depth encircling the south pole is also observed. This implies that the quasi-periodic dust events will contribute to the enhancement of the atmospheric dust loading in this region. These dust events might be related to baroclinic instability caused by the thermal contrast across the CO2 cap edge, or the horizontal advection or vertical convection with radiative-dynamical feedback. The westward movement of the dust clouds suggests steady westward winds blowing in the near-surface layer, where the quasi-periodic dust lifting is expected to occur. Such a westward cap-edge flow will be created by the Coriolis force acting on the flow from the ice side to the regolith side.  相似文献   

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