The effect of a dense atmosphere on the tidally induced potential of Titan |
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| Authors: | Özgür Karatekin Tim Van Hoolst |
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| Institution: | Royal Observatory of Belgium, 3 Avenue circulaire, B-1180, Bruxelles, Belgium |
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| Abstract: | 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. |
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| Keywords: | Titan Tides atmospheric Tides solid body Interiors |
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