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1.
The influence of Saturn's gravitational tide on the atmosphere of Titan is investigated by means of a three-dimensional general circulation model. Titan's orbital eccentricity of 0.0292 gives rise to time-dependent radial and librational tide whose potential circles eastward on Titan. Unlike atmospheric tides on terrestrial planets, Saturn's tide on Titan has a large impact on the dynamic meteorology down to the surface. The surface pressure oscillates by up to 1.5 hPa through the orbit. Near the surface the tidal wind dominates the atmospheric flow and exhibits strong temporal and spatial variation. The superposition of the annually present, thermally forced latitudinal pressure gradient and tidally caused pressure variation produces a unique wind pattern near the surface characterized by equatorward flow and high-latitude whirls. At higher levels the tidal wind manifests itself as eastward traveling planetary-scale wave of wavenumber 2 superposed on the background wind. In general tidal winds are more significant in the troposphere, where other forcing mechanisms are weak. Meridional tidal winds become as fast as 5 m s−1 in the troposphere and change direction periodically through the orbit and along the parallel of latitude. Except in the lower troposphere, zonal winds always remain prograde because the tidal wind amplitude is usually smaller than the mean zonal wind. The tide also has a large impact on the mean zonal circulation in the stratosphere. A meridional drift of the descending Huygens Probe in the troposphere would be the easiest way to verify the tidal wind on Titan, but more complete observations of tropospheric wind and surface pressure by a future mission would be required to unveil the complete details of the tidal wind.  相似文献   

2.
During the first phase of Huygens arrival into Titan's atmosphere the probe is subjected to gravitational and aerodynamic forces in aerodynamic hypersonic regime. Atmospheric drag exerts a strong deceleration on the capsule measured by Huygens atmospheric structure instrument (HASI) servo accelerometer. A 6 DOF (Degree of Freedom) model of the Huygens probe entry dynamics has been developed and used for data analysis. The accelerometer data are analysed and the model allows the retrieval of dynamics information of Huygens probe from 1545 km altitude down to end of the entry phase. Probe's initial conditions (velocity and position) were refined to match the measured deceleration profile resulting in a different altitude at interface epoch with respect to those of the Cassini Navigation Team. Velocity and position of probe at interface epoch are compatible with those used by Descent Trajectory Working Group (DTWG).Measurements acquired before atmosphere detection are used to estimate probe's angular rate, bound attitude and characterise the angle of attack profile which results to be lower than 4° during the whole entry. Probe's spin calculated (6.98 RPM) is slightly different with respect to DTWG of 7.28 RPM but considering a 2% error in the Inertia matrix these results are inside the 1-σ error band.  相似文献   

3.
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4.
Vertical winds have been observed by optical Doppler measurements of the 557.7 nm emission in the aurora, using a Fabry-Perot spectrometer. Both upward and downward winds were observed, of 15 m s?1 magnitude. The upward winds were associated with westward overhead currents, and with low altitude aurora (～ 110 km) as determined by the auroral temperature, while a high altitude aurora (～ 135 km) and eastward currents were associated with the downward wind. The Lorentz force of these currents has the wrong direction to act as a direct forcing mechanism. It is concluded that Joule heating is directly responsible for the upward winds, while the divergence of horizontal winds is responsible for the downward winds.  相似文献   

5.
Xun Zhu  Darrell F. Strobel 《Icarus》2005,176(2):331-350
Titan's atmospheric winds, like those on Venus, exhibit superrotation at high altitudes. Titan general circulation models have yielded conflicting results on whether prograde winds in excess of 100 m s−1 at the 1 mbar level are possible based on known physical processes that drive wind systems. A comprehensive two-dimensional (2D) model for Titan's stratosphere was constructed to systematically explore the physical mechanisms that produce and maintain stratospheric wind systems. To ensure conservation of angular momentum in the limit of no net exchange of atmospheric angular momentum with the solid satellite and no external sources and sinks, the zonal momentum equation was solved in flux form for total angular momentum. The relationships among thermal wind balance, meridional circulation, and zonal wind were examined with numerical experiments over a range of values for fundamental input parameters, including planetary rotation rate, radius, internal friction due to wave stresses, and net radiative drive. The magnitude of mid-latitude jets is most sensitive to a single parameter, the planetary rotation rate and results from the conversion of planetary angular momentum to relative angular momentum by the meridional circulation, whereas the strength of meridional circulation is mainly determined by the magnitude of the radiative drive. For Titan's slowly rotating atmosphere, the meridional temperature gradient is vanishingly small, even when the radiative drive is enhanced beyond reasonable magnitudes, and can be inferred from zonal winds in gradient/thermal wind balance. In our 2D model large equatorial superrotation in Titan's stratosphere can be only produced through internal drag forcing by eddy momentum fluxes, which redistribute angular momentum within the atmosphere, while still conserving the total angular momentum of the atmosphere with time. We cannot identify any waves, such as gravitational or thermal tides, that are sufficiently capable of generating the required eddy forcing of >50 m s−1 Titan-day−1 to maintain peak prograde winds in excess of 100 m s−1 at the 1 mbar level.  相似文献   

6.
The effect of the dense atmosphere of Titan on the tidal variations of the external gravitational potential of degree two is quantified. The atmospheric tides perturb the external gravitational potential of Titan in two ways. First, the atmosphere itself contributes directly to the external gravitational potential with a period of 15.945 days. Second, the variable loading of the atmosphere induces mass redistribution within Titan, which also changes the external gravitational potential. It is shown that the relative atmospheric contributions to the tides are most likely less than 2% and vanish almost completely for the most plausible models with a subsurface ocean. This suggest that atmospheric tidal perturbations will contribute only negligibly to Cassini measurements of Titan's gravitational field so that the tidal Love numbers derived from these observations can be directly interpreted in terms of the satellite's interior.  相似文献   

7.
Ralph D. Lorenz 《Icarus》2006,182(2):559-566
The Huygens probe lost heat to its cold environment during its descent through Titan's atmosphere and after landing. Here I report measurements of the probe's thermal behavior and comparison with ground tests (1) to provide a context for other scientific investigations, such as the release of volatiles from the landing site, and (2) to place constraints on Titan environmental parameters directly, such as the thermal conductivity of the surface material and the strength of winds at the surface. Near-surface winds are constrained to be less than 0.2 m s−1, and probably much less.  相似文献   

8.
Darrell F. Strobel 《Icarus》2006,182(1):251-258
Tidal waves driven by Titan's orbital eccentricity through the time-dependent component of Saturn's gravitational potential attain nonlinear, saturation amplitudes (|T′|>10 K, , and ) in the upper atmosphere (?500 km) due to the approximate exponential growth as the inverse square root of pressure. The gravitational tides, with vertical wavelengths of ∼100-150 km above 500 km altitude, carry energy fluxes sufficient in magnitude to affect the energy balance of the upper atmosphere with heating rates in the altitude range of 500-900 km.  相似文献   

9.
The Huygens probe returned scientific measurements from the atmosphere and surface of Titan on 14 January 2005. Knowledge of the trajectory of Huygens is necessary for scientific analysis of those measurements. We use measurements from the Huygens Atmospheric Structure Instrument (HASI) to reconstruct the trajectory of Huygens during its mission. The HASI Accelerometer subsystem measured the axial acceleration of the probe with errors of 3E−6 m s−2, the most accurate measurements ever made by an atmospheric structure instrument on another planetary body. The atmosphere was detected at an altitude of 1498 km. Measurements of the normal acceleration of the probe, which are important for determining the probe's attitude during hypersonic entry, were significantly less accurate and limited by transverse sensitivity of the piezo sensors. Peak acceleration of 121.2 m s−2 occurred at 234.9 km altitude. The parachute deployment sequence started at 157.1 km and a speed of 342.1 m s−1. Direct measurements of pressure and temperature began shortly afterwards. The measured accelerations and equations of motion have been used to reconstruct the trajectory prior to parachute deployment. Measured pressures and temperatures, together with the equation of hydrostatic equilibrium and the equation of state, have been used to reconstruct the trajectory after parachute deployment. Uncertainties in the entry state of Huygens at the top of the atmosphere are significant, but can be reduced by requiring that the trajectory and atmospheric properties be continuous at parachute deployment.  相似文献   

10.
The servo accelerometer constituted a vital part of the Huygens Atmospheric Structure Instrument (HASI): flown aboard the Huygens probe, it operated successfully during the probe's entry, descent, and landing on Titan, on 14th January 2005. This paper reviews the Servo accelerometer, starting from its development/assembly in the mid-1990s, to monitoring its technical performance through its seven-year long in-flight (or cruise) journey, and finally its performance in measuring acceleration (or deceleration) upon encountering Titan's atmosphere.The aim of this article is to review the design, ground tests, in-flight tests and operational performance of the Huygens servo accelerometer. Techniques used for data analysis and lessons learned that may be useful for accelerometry payloads on future planetary missions are also addressed.The main finding of this review is that the conventional approach of having multiple channels to cover a very broad measurement range: from 10−6g to the order of 10g (where g=Earth's surface gravity, 9.8 m/s2), with on-board software deciding which of the channels to telemeter depending on the magnitude of the measured acceleration, works well. However, improvements in understanding the potential effects of the sensor drifts and ageing on the measurements can be achieved in future missions by monitoring the ‘scale factor’—a measure of such sensors’ sensitivity, along with the already implemented monitoring of the sensor's offset during the in-flight phase.  相似文献   

11.
In the framework of the activities going on in preparation for the mission of the Huygens probe in Titan's atmosphere (January 2005), the Huygens Atmospheric Structure Instrument (HASI) team scheduled and performed several balloon campaigns to test the HASI sensors’ performance in flight conditions in the Earth's atmosphere. In particular, pressure conditions reached during each test are similar to those expected in Titan's lower atmosphere. A 1:1 scaled mock-up of the Huygens probe was launched with a stratospheric balloon in 2001 (Br. Assoc. Adv. Sci. 33 (2001) 1109) and in 2002 (Br. Assoc. Adv. Sci. 34 (2002) 911; Adv. Space. Sci. (2003)) from the G. Broglio base of the Italian Space Agency, located in Trapani Milo (Sicily). In both cases the mock-up was dropped from an altitude higher than 27 and , respectively, and recovered on the ground after a parachuted descent. In this paper, we describe the results obtained in reconstructing (i) the probe descent trajectory and (ii) the profiles of the physical quantities characterizing the Earth's atmosphere, on the basis of a complete analysis of the data obtained during the HASI 2002 balloon flight experiment. Using temperature and pressure measurements, we are able to reach an accuracy of the order of 0.5% on the altitude reconstruction during the descent. We validate both the models used for trajectory reconstruction and to check the sensors’ performance. We describe the problems faced in determining the Huygens probe descent trajectory in Titan's atmosphere focusing our discussion on the critical aspects of the descent reconstruction (such as the uncertainties due to measurement errors, limited knowledge of the atmospheric composition, etc.) and the validity of the adopted assumptions.  相似文献   

12.
This paper extends Leovy's theory on Venus’ equatorial superrotation by analytically examining additional terms in the mean zonal momentum equation that stably balances the momentum source of pumping by thermal tides. The general analytical solution is applied to the atmospheres of both Venus and Saturn's moon Titan. The main results are: (i) Venus’ equatorial superrotation of 118 m s−1 results primarily from a balance between the momentum source of pumping by thermal tides and the momentum sink of meridional advection of wind shear by horizontal branches of the Hadley circulation; (ii) no solution is found for Titan's stratospheric equatorial superrotation centered at the 1-hPa level; (iii) however, if the main solar radiation absorption layer in Titan's stratosphere is lifted from 1 hPa (∼185 km) to 0.1 hPa (∼288 km), an equatorial superrotation of ∼110 m s−1 centered at 0.1-hPa could be maintained. Titan's equatorial superrotation results mainly from a balance between the momentum source of tidal pumping and the momentum sink of frictional drag.  相似文献   

13.
The recent measurements of the vertical distribution and optical properties of haze aerosols as well as of the absorption coefficients for methane at long paths and cold temperatures by the Huygens entry probe of Titan permit the computation of the solar heating rate on Titan with greater certainty than heretofore. We use the haze model derived from the Descent Imager/Spectral Radiometer (DISR) instrument on the Huygens probe [Tomasko, M.G., Doose, L., Engel, S., Dafoe, L.E., West, R., Lemmon, M., Karkoschka, E., See, C., 2008a. A model of Titan's aerosols based on measurements made inside the atmosphere. Planet. Space Sci., this issue, doi:10.1016/j.pss.2007.11.019] to evaluate the variation in solar heating rate with altitude and solar zenith angle in Titan's atmosphere. We find the disk-averaged solar energy deposition profile to be in remarkably good agreement with earlier estimates using very different aerosol distributions and optical properties. We also evaluated the radiative cooling rate using measurements of the thermal emission spectrum by the Cassini Composite Infrared Spectrometer (CIRS) around the latitude of the Huygens site. The thermal flux was calculated as a function of altitude using temperature, gas, and haze profiles derived from Huygens and Cassini/CIRS data. We find that the cooling rate profile is in good agreement with the solar heating profile averaged over the planet if the haze structure is assumed the same at all latitudes. We also computed the solar energy deposition profile at the 10°S latitude of the probe-landing site averaged over one Titan day. We find that some 80% of the sunlight that strikes the top of the atmosphere at this latitude is absorbed in all, with 60% of the incident solar energy absorbed below 150 km, 40% below 80 km, and 11% at the surface at the time of the Huygens landing near the beginning of summer in the southern hemisphere. We compare the radiative cooling rate with the solar heating rate near the Huygens landing site averaging over all longitudes. At this location, we find that the solar heating rate exceeds the radiative cooling rate by a maximum of 0.5 K/Titan day near 120 km altitude and decreases strongly above and below this altitude. Since there is no evidence that the temperature structure at this latitude is changing, the general circulation must redistribute this heat to higher latitudes.  相似文献   

14.
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   

15.
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16.
C.M. Anderson  E.F. Young  C.P. McKay 《Icarus》2008,194(2):721-745
We report on the analysis of high spatial resolution visible to near-infrared spectral images of Titan at Ls=240° in November 2000, obtained with the Space Telescope Imaging Spectrograph instrument on board the Hubble Space Telescope as part of program GO-8580. We employ a radiative transfer fractal particle aerosol model with a Bayesian parameter estimation routine that computes Titan's absolute reflectivity per pixel for 122 wavelengths by modeling the vertical distribution of the lower atmosphere haze and tropospheric methane. Analysis of these data suggests that Titan's haze concentration in the lower atmosphere varies in strength with latitude. We find Titan's tropospheric methane profile to be fairly consistent with latitude and longitude, and we find evidence for local areas of a CH4-N2 binary saturation in Titan's troposphere. Our results suggest that a methane and haze profile at one location on Titan would not be representative of global conditions.  相似文献   

17.
Our model [Dimitrov, V., Bar-Nun, A., 1999. A model of energy dependent agglomeration of hydrocarbon aerosol particles and implication to Titan's aerosol. J. Aerosol. Sci. 30(1), 35-49] describes the experimentally found polymerization of C2H2 and HCN to form aerosol embryos, their growth and adherence to form various aerosols objects [Bar-Nun, A., Kleinfeld, I., Ganor, E., 1988. Shape and optical properties of aerosols formed by photolysis of C2H2, C2H4 and HCN. J. Geophys. Res. 93, 8383-8387]. These loose fractal objects describe well the findings of DISR on the Huygens probe [Tomasko, M.G., Bézard, B., Doose, L., Engel, S., Karkoschka, E., 2008. Measurements of methane absorption by the descent imager/spectral radiometer (DISR) during its descent through Titan's atmosphere. Planet. Space Sci., this issue, doi:10.1016/j.pss.2007]. These include (1) various regular objects of R=(0.035-0.064)×10−6 m, as compared with DISR's 0.05×10−6 m; (2) diverse low and high fractal structures composed of random combinations of various regular and irregular objects; (3) the number density of fractal particles is 6.9×106 m−3 at Z=100 km, as compared with DISR's finding of 5.0×106 m−3 at Z=80 km; (4) the number of structural units per higher fractals in the atmosphere at Z∼100 km is (2400-2700), as compared with DISR's 3000, and their size being of R=(5.4-6.4)×10−6 m will satisfy this value and (5) condensation of CH4 on the highly fractal structures could begin at the altitude where thin methane clouds were observed, filling somewhat the new open fractal structures.  相似文献   

18.
Stellar occultations have shown that vertical profiles of density fluctuations in the atmosphere of Pluto typically show wave-like structure with an amplitude of a few percent and vertical wavelengths of a few kilometers. Here we calculate the tidal response of Pluto’s atmosphere to solar-induced sublimation “breathing” from N2 frost patches. Solutions show global-scale wave-like density structure capable of explaining the observations. The atmospheric response is a combination of eastward and westward migrating tides, together with a zonally symmetric mode. Calculated vertical wavelengths and amplitudes are similar to observations.  相似文献   

19.
An automated cloud tracking algorithm is applied to Cassini Imaging Science Subsystem high-resolution apoapsis images of Saturn from 2005 and 2007 and moderate resolution images from 2011 and 2012 to define the near-global distribution of zonal winds and eddy momentum fluxes at the middle troposphere cloud level and in the upper troposphere haze. Improvements in the tracking algorithm combined with the greater feature contrast in the northern hemisphere during the approach to spring equinox allow for better rejection of erroneous wind vectors, a more objective assessment at any latitude of the quality of the mean zonal wind, and a population of winds comparable in size to that available for the much higher contrast atmosphere of Jupiter. Zonal winds at cloud level changed little between 2005 and 2007 at all latitudes sampled. Upper troposphere zonal winds derived from methane band images are ～10 m s?1 weaker than cloud level winds in the cores of eastward jets and ～5 m s?1 stronger on either side of the jet core, i.e., eastward jets appear to broaden with increasing altitude. In westward jet regions winds are approximately the same at both altitudes. Lateral eddy momentum fluxes are directed into eastward jet cores, including the strong equatorial jet, and away from westward jet cores and weaken with increasing altitude on the flanks of the eastward jets, consistent with the upward broadening of these jets. The conversion rate of eddy to mean zonal kinetic energy at the visible cloud level is larger in eastward jet regions (5.2 × 10?5 m2 s?3) and smaller in westward jet regions (1.6 × 10?5 m2 s?3) than the global mean value (4.1 × 10?5 m2 s?3). Overall the results are consistent with theories that suggest that the jets and the overturning meridional circulation at cloud level on Saturn are maintained at least in part by eddies due to instabilities of the large-scale flow near and/or below the cloud level.  相似文献   

20.
Observations of optical depth and scattering by instrumentation onboard the Huygens probe have been used by Tomasko et al. [Tomasko et al., 2005. Rain, winds and haze during Huygens probe's descent to Titan's surface. Nature 438 (8), 765-778] to deduce that the size and abundance of Titan aerosols could be nearly independent of altitude. Here we show that by assuming a constant mass flux with altitude and using the measured optical depth as a constraint, we obtain more realistic size and abundance distributions. In particular, the calculated abundance decreases from 3.5×107 m−3 at 100 km to 8×106 m−3 near the surface while the particle radius varies from 0.25 μm at 150 km to 1.1 μm at the surface. These distributions are consistent with the reported measurements for these quantities. Our results are then employed to compute electron and ion densities and conductivities for various solar UV photoelectron emission thresholds. Our model shows that to get agreement with the published (preliminary) conductivity measurements, photoemission cannot be an important source of electrons and ions. To get agreement with the electron and ion conductivity observations, both an additional population of aerosol embryos above 50 km and a trace amount of an electrophillic molecular species below 50 km are needed.  相似文献   

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