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NASA NTRS2011

Seasonal Changes in Titan's Surface Temperatures

Cassini's extended mission has provided the opportunity to search for seasonal variations on Titan. In particular, surface temperatures are expected to have shifted significantly in latitude during the completed portion of the mission. Spectra recorded by the Composite Infrared Spectrometer (CIRS) during the nominal mission (2004-08) and the Equinox mission. (2008-10) have already shown changes in temperature. CIRS has detected a seasonal shift in the latitudinal distribution of surface brightness temperatures by comparing zonal averages from two time segments, one period in late northern winter centered on L(sub s) approximately 335 deg and a second period centered on the equinox (L(sub s) approximately 0 deg.). The earlier period had a meridional distribution similar to that previously reported: 93.5 K at the equator, 91.7 K at 85 S and 899 K at 85 N. The newly measured distribution near equinox shows a cooling in the south and a warming in the north, both by about 0.5 K. We estimate that. the centroid of the distribution moved from approximately 16 S to 7 S between the two periods. This gives a seasonal lag behind insolation of delta L(sub s) approximately 13 deg. The CIRS equinox results are consistent with those of Voyager IRIS, which encountered Titan in November 1980, just following the previous northern equinox (L(sub s) = 10 deg.). When compared with predictions from general circulation models, seasonal variations of surface temperature can help constrain the identification of surface materials. Our measurements most closely match the case of a porous ice regolith treated by Tokano, but with some apparent differences between the northern and southern hemispheres. CIRS will extend its study of seasonal variations in surface temperature on Titan as Cassini continues through northern spring.

Jennings, Donald E.↗
NASA NTRS2011

Equatorial Oscillations in Jupiter's and Saturn's Atmospheres

Equatorial oscillations in the zonal-mean temperatures and zonal winds have been well documented in Earth's middle atmosphere. A growing body of evidence from ground-based and Cassini spacecraft observations indicates that such phenomena also occur in the stratospheres of Jupiter and Saturn. Earth-based midinfrared measurements spanning several decades have established that the equatorial stratospheric temperatures on Jupiter vary with a cycle of 4-5 years and on Saturn with a cycle of approximately 15 years. Spectra obtained by the Composite Infrared Spectrometer (CIRS) during the Cassini swingby at the end of 2000, with much better vertical resolution than the ground-based data, indicated a series of vertically stacked warm and cold anomalics at Jupiter's equator; a similar structurc was seen at Saturn's equator in CIRS limb measurements made in 2005, in the early phase of Cassini's orbital tour. The thermal wind equation implied similar patterns of mean zonal winds increasing and decreasing with altitude. On Saturn the peak-to-pcak amplitude of this variation was nearly 200 meters per second. The alternating vertical pattern of wanner and colder cquatorial tcmperatures and easterly and westerly tendencies of the zonal winds is seen in Earth's equatorial oscillations, where the pattern descends with time, The Cassini Jupiter and early Saturn observations were snapshots within a limited time interval, and they did not show the temporal evolution of the spatial patterns. However, more recent Saturn observations by CIRS (2010) and Cassini radio-occultation soundings (2009-2010) have provided an opportunity to follow the change of the temperature-zonal wind pattern, and they suggest there is descent, at a rate of roughly one scale height over four years. On Earth, the observed descent in the zonal-mean structure is associated with the absorption of a combination of vertically propagating waves with easlerly and westerly phase velocities. The peak-to-peak zonal wind amplitude in the oscillation pattern and the rate of descent constrain the absorbed wave flux of zonal momentum. On Saturn this is approximately 0.05 square meters per square seconds, which is comparable to if not greater than that associated with the terrestrial oscillations. We discuss possible candidates for the absorbed waves on Saturn. On Earth the wave forcing of the equatorial oscillation generales secondary circulations that can affcct the temperature and wind structure at latitudes well away from the equator, and we discuss possible evidence of that on Saturn.

Flasar, F. Michael↗
NASA NTRS2011

Seasonal Changes in Titan's Surface Temperatures

Seasonal changes in Titan's surface brightness temperatures have been observed by Cassini in the thermal infrared. The Composite Infrared Spectrometer (CIRS) measured surface radiances at 19 micron in two time periods: one in late northern winter (Ls = 335d eg) and another centered on northern spring equinox (Ls = 0 deg). In both periods we constructed pole-to-pole maps of zonally averaged brightness temperatures corrected for effects of the atmosphere. Between late northern winter and northern spring equinox a shift occurred in the temperature distribution, characterized by a warming of approximately 0.5 K in the north and a cooling by about the same amount in the south. At equinox the polar surface temperatures were both near 91 K and the equator was 93.4 K. We measured a seasonal lag of delta Ls approximately 9 in the meridional surface temperature distribution, consistent with the post-equinox results of Voyager 1 as well as with predictions from general circulation modeling. A slightly elevated temperature is observed at 65 deg S in the relatively cloud-free zone between the mid-latitude and southern cloud regions.

Jennins, Donald E.↗
NASA NTRS2011

Trace Species Identified in Saturn's Northern Storm Region

The massive storm at 40degN on Saturn that began in December 2010 has produced significant and lasting effects in the northern hemisphere on temperature and species abundances [I}. The northern storm region was observed at 0.5/cm spectral resolution in March 2011 by Cassini's Composite Infrared Spectrometer (CIRS). Temperatures in the stratosphere as high as 190 K were derived from CIRS spectra in warm regions referred to as "beacons". Other longitudes exhibit cold temperatures in the upper troposphere. These unusual conditions allow us to identify rare species such as C4H2, C3H4, and CO2 in the stratosphere, as well as to measure changes in the abundance of phosphine (PH3) in the troposphere. Phosphine is a disequilibrium species whose abundance is a tracer of upwelling from the deep atmosphere.

Bjoraker, Gordon L.↗
NASA NTRS2011

The Global Energy Balance of Titan

We report the first measurement of the global emitted power of Titan. Longterm (2004-2010) observations conducted by the Composite Infrared Spectrometer (CIRS) onboard Cassini reveal that the total emitted power by Titan is (2.84 plus or minus 0.01) x 10(exp 8) watts. Together with previous measurements of the global absorbed solar power of Titan, the CIRS measurements indicate that the global energy budget of Titan is in equilibrium within measurement error. The uncertainty in the absorbed solar energy places an upper limit on the energy imbalance of 5.3%.

Li, Liming↗
NASA NTRS2011

Spectral and Vertical Distribution Properties of Titan's Particulates from Thermal-IR CIRS Data: Physical Implications

Analyses of far-IR spectra between 20 and 560/cm (500 and 18 micron) recorded by the Cassini Composite Infrared Spectrometer (CIRS) yield the spectral dependence and the vertical distribution of Titan's photochemical aerosol and stratospheric ice clouds. Below the stratopause (approx. 300 km) the aerosol appears to be incompletely mixed for the following reasons: 1) the altitude dependence of the aerosol mass absorption coefficient is larger at higher altitudes than at lower altitudes, 2} the aerosol scale height varies with altitude, which implies some kind of layering effect, and 3) the aerosol abundance varies with latitude. The spectral shape of the aerosol opacity appears to be independent in altitude and latitude below the stratopause, even though inhomogeneities in the abundance appear to be prevalent throughout this altitude region. This implies that aerosol chemistry is restricted to altitude regions above the stratopause, where pressures are less than approx 0.1 mbar. The aerosol exhibits an extremely broad emisSion feature with a spectral peak at 140/cm (71 micron), which is not evident in laboratory simulated Titan aerosols (tholin) that are created at pressures greater than 0.1 mbar. A strong broad emission feature centered roughly around 160 cm-1 corresponds very closely to those found in nitrile ice spectra. This feature is pervasive throughout the region from high northern to high southern latitudes. The inference of nitrile ices is consistent with the highly restricted altitude ranges over which these features are observed, and appear to be dominated by HCN and HC3N. At low and moderate latitudes these clouds are observed to be located between 60 and 100 km, whereas at high northern latitudes during northern winter these clouds are observed at altitudes between 150 and 165 km. The ubiquitous nature of these nitrile ice clouds is inconsistent with a simple meridional circulation concept, suggesting that the true dynamical situation is more complex.

Anderson, Carrie M.↗
NASA NTRS2012

Water Vapor on Titan: The Stratospheric Vertical Profile from Cassini/CIRS Infrared Spectra

Water vapor in Titan's middle atmosphere has previously been detected only by disk-average observations from the Infrared Space Observatory (Coustenis et al., 1998). We report here the successful detection of stratospheric water vapor using the Cassini Composite Infrared Spectrometer (CIRS, Flasar et al., 2004) following an earlier null result (de Kok et al., 2007a). CIRS senses water emissions in the far-infrared spectral region near 50 microns, which we have modeled using two independent radiative transfer and inversion codes (NEMESIS, Irwin et al 2008 and ART, Coustenis et al., 2010). From the analysis of nadir spectra we have derived a mixing ratio of (0.14 plus or minus 0.05) ppb at 100 km, corresponding to a column abundance of approximately (3.7 plus or minus 1.3) x 10(exp 14) moles per square centimeter. Using limb observations, we obtained mixing ratios of (0.13 plus or minus 0.04) ppb at 125 km and (0.45 plus or minus 0.15) ppb at 225 km of altitude, confirming that the water abundance has a positive vertical gradient as predicted by photochemical models. In the latitude range (80 deg. S - 30 deg. N) we see no evidence for latitudinal variations in these abundances within the error bars.

Cottini, V.↗
NASA NTRS2012

Update from the Analysis of High Resolution Propane Spectra and the Interpretation of Titan's Infrared Spectra

Titan has an extremely thick atmosphere dominated by nitrogen, but includes a range of trace species such as hydrocarbons and nitriles. One such hydrocarbon is propane (C3H8). Propane has 21 active IR bands covering broad regions of the mid-infrared. Therefore, its ubiquitous signature may potentially mask weaker signatures of other undetected species with important roles in Titan's chemistry. Cassini's Composite Infrared Spectrometer (CIRS) observations of Titan's atmosphere hint at the presence of such molecules. Unfortunately, C3H8 line atlases for the vibration bands V(sub 8), V(sub 21), V(sub 20), and V(sub 7) (869, 922, 1054, and 1157 per centimeter, respectively) are not currently available for subtracting the C3H8 signal to reveal, or constrain, the signature of underlying chemical species. Using spectra previously obtained by Jennings, D. E., et al. at the McMath-Pierce FTIR at Kitt Peak, AZ, as the source and automated analysis utilities developed for this application, we are compiling an atlas of spectroscopic parameters for propane that characterize the ro-vibrational transitions in the above bands. In this paper, we will discuss our efforts for inspecting and fitting the aforementioned bands, present updated results for spectroscopic parameters including absolute line intensities and transition frequencies in HITRAN and GEISA formats, and show how these optical constants will be used in searching for other trace chemical species in Titan's atmosphere. Our line atlas for the V(sub 21) band contains a total number of 2971 lines. The band integrated strength calculated for the V(sub 21) band is 1.003 per centimeter per (centimeter-atm).

Klavans, V.↗
NASA NTRS2011

High Heat Flow from Enceladus' South Polar Region Measured using 10-600/cm(exp -1) Cassini/CIRS Data

Analysis of 2008 Cassini Composite Infrared Spectrometer (CIRS) 10 to 600/cm thermal emission spectra of Enceladus shows that for reasonable assumptions about the spatial distribution of the emission and the thermophysical properties of the solar-heated background surface, which are supported by CIRS observations of background temperatures at the edge of the active region, the endogenic power of Enceladus' south polar terrain is 15.8 +/- 3.1 GW. This is significantly higher than the previous estimate of 5.8 +/- 1.9 GW. The new value represents an improvement over the previous one, which was derived from higher wave number data (600 to 1100/cm-I) and was thus only sensitive to high-temperature emission. The mechanism capable of producing such a high endogenic power remains a mystery and challenges the current models of proposed heat production.

Howett, C. J. A.↗
NASA NTRS2012

Isotopic Ratios in Titan's Methane: Measurements and Modeling

The existence of methane in Titan's atmosphere (approx. 6% level at the surface) presents a unique enigma, as photochemical models predict that the current inventory will be entirely depleted by photochemistry in a timescale of approx 20 Myr. In this paper, we examine the clues available from isotopic ratios (C-12/C-13 and D/H) in Titan's methane as to the past atmosphere history of this species. We first analyze recent infrared spectra of CH4 collected by the Cassini Composite Infrared Spectrometer, measuring simultaneously for the first time the abundances of all three detected minor isotopologues: (13)CH4, (12)CH3D, and (13)CH3D. From these we compute estimates of C-12/C-13 = 86.5 +/- 8.2 and D/H = (1.59 +/- 0.33) x 10(exp -4) , in agreement with recent results from the Huygens GCMS and Cassini INMS instruments. We also use the transition state theory to estimate the fractionation that occurs in carbon and hydrogen during a critical reaction that plays a key role in the chemical depletion of Titan's methane: CH4 + C2H yields CH3 + C2H2. Using these new measurements and predictions we proceed to model the time evolution of C-12/C-13 and D/H in Titan's methane under several prototypical replenishment scenarios. In our Model 1 (no resupply of CH4), we find that the present-day C-12/C-13 implies that the CH4 entered the atmosphere 60-1600 Myr ago if methane is depleted by chemistry and photolysis alone, but much more recently-most likely less than 10 Myr ago-if hydrodynamic escape is also occurring. On the other hand, if methane has been continuously supplied at the replenishment rate then the isotopic ratios provide no constraints, and likewise for the case where atmospheric methane is increasing, We conclude by discussing how these findings may be combined with other evidence to constrain the overall history of the atmospheric methane.

Nixon, C. A.↗
NASA NTRS2012

Tidal Control of Jet Eruptions Observed by Cassini ISS

Observations by Cassini's Imaging Science Subsystem (ISS) of Enceladus' south polar region at high phase angles has revealed jets of material venting into space. Observations by Cassini's Composite Infrared Spectrometer (CIRS) have also shown that the south polar region is anomalously warm with hotspots associated with geological features called the Tiger Stripes. The Tiger Stripes are large rifts near the south pole of Enceladus, which are typically about 130 km in length, 2 km wide, with a trough 500 m deep, and are l1anked on each side by 100m tall ridges. Preliminary triangulation of jets as viewed at different times and with different viewing geometries in Cassini ISS images taken between 2005 and 2007 have constrained the locations of eight major eruptions of material and found all of them associated with the south polar fractures unofficially the 'Tiger Stripes', and found four of them coincident with the hotspots reported in 2006 by CIRS. While published ISS observations of jet activity suggest that individual eruption sites stay active on the timescale of years, any shorter temporal variability (on timescales of an orbital period, or 1.3 Earth days, for example) is more difficult to establish because of the spotty temporal coverage and the difficulty of visually isolating one jet from the forest of many seen in a typical image. Consequently, it is not known whether individual jets are continuously active, randomly active, or if they erupt on a predictable, periodic schedule. One mechanism that may control the timing of eruptions is diurnal tidal stress, which oscillates between compression/tension as well as right and left lateral shear at any given location throughout Enceladus' orbit and may allow the cracks to open and close regularly. We examine the stresses on the Tiger Stripe regions to see how well diurnal tidal stress caused by Enceladus' orbital eccentricity may possibly correlate with and thus control the observed eruptions. We then identify possible mechanisms by which tidal stress can provide access to the surface for volatile material and implications for observed jet activity.

Hurford, T. A.↗
NASA NTRS2012

The Evolution and Fate of Saturn's Stratospheric Vortex: Infrared Spectroscopy from Cassini

The planet-encircling springtime storm in Saturn's troposphere (December 2010-July 2011) produced dramatic perturbations to stratospheric temperatures, winds and composition at mbar pressures that persisted long after the tropospheric disturbance had abated. Observations from the Cassini Composite Infrared Spectrometer (CIRS), supported by ground-based imaging from the VISIR instrument on the Very Large Telescope,is used to track the evolution of a large, hot stratospheric anticyclone between January 2011 and the present day. The evolutionary sequence can be divided into three phases: (I) the formation and intensification of two distinct warm airmasses near 0.5 mbar between 25 and 35N (one residing directly above the convective storm head) between January-April 2011, moving westward with different zonal velocities; (II) the merging of the warm airmasses to form the large single 'stratospheric beacon' near 40N between April and June 2011, dissociated from the storm head and at a higher pressure (2 mbar) than the original beacons; and (III) the mature phase characterized by slow cooling and longitudinal shrinkage of the anticyclone since July 2011, moving west with a near-constant velocity of 2.70+/-0.04 deg/day (-24.5+/-0.4 m/s at 40N). Peak temperatures of 220 K at 2 mbar were measured on May 5th 2011 immediately after the merger, some 80 K warmer than the quiescent surroundings. Thermal winds hear calculations in August 2011 suggest clockwise peripheral velocities of 200400 mls at 2 mbar, defining a peripheral collar with a width of 65 degrees longitude (50,000 km in diameter) and 25 degrees latitude. Stratospheric acetylene (C2H2) was uniformly enhanced by a factor of three within the vortex, whereas ethane (C2H6) remained unaffected. We will discuss the thermal and chemical characteristics of Saturn's beacon in its mature phase, and implications for stratospheric vortices on other giant planets.

Fletcher, Leigh N.↗
NASA NTRS2012

Water Vapor in Titan's Stratosphere from Cassini/CIRS Far-infrared Spectra

Since the first detection of water vapor in Titan's stratosphere by disk-average observations from the Infrared Space Observatory (Coustenis et al. 1998) we report here the successful detection of stratospheric water vapor using the Cassini Composite Infrared Spectrometer (CIRS, Flasar et al. 2004). CIRS senses water emissions in the far infrared spectral region near 50 microns, which we have modeled using two independent radiative transfer codes (NEMESIS, Irwin et al 2008 and ART, Coustenis et al. 2007, 2010). From the analysis of nadir spectra we have derived a mixing ratio of (0.14 0.05) ppb at an altitude of 97 kilometers, which corresponds to an integrated (from 0 to 600 kilometers) surface normalized column abundance of (3.7 plus or minus 1.3) x 10(exp 14) molecules per square centimeter. In the latitude range 80 S to 30 N we see no evidence for latitudinal variations in these abundances within the error bars. Using limb observations, we obtained mixing ratios of (0.13 plus or minus 0.04) ppb at an altitude of 115 kilometers and (0.45 plus or minus 0.15) ppb at an altitude of 230 kilometers, confirming that the water abundance has a positive vertical gradient as predicted by photochemical models (e.g. Lara et al. 1996, Wilson and Atreya 2004, Horst et al. 2008); retrieved scaling factors (from approximately 0.1 to approximately 0.6) to the water profile suggested by these models show that water vapor is present in Titan stratosphere with less abundance than predicted.

Cottini, V.↗
NASA NTRS2012

The Evolution of Hydrocarbons in Saturn's Northern Storm Region

The massive storm at 40N on Saturn that began in December 2010 has produced significant and lasting effects in the northern hemisphere on temperature and species abundances (Fletcher et aL 2011). The northern storm region was observed on several occasions between March 2011 and April 2012 by Cassini's Composite Infrared Spectrometer (CIRS) at a spectral resolution (0.5/cm) which permits the study of trace species in Saturn's stratosphere. During this time period, stratospheric temperatures in regions referred to as "beacons" (warm regions at specific longitudes at the latitude of the storm) became significantly warmer than pre-storm values of 140K, peaking near 220K, and subsequently cooling. These warm temperatures led to greatly enhanced infrared emission due to C4H2, C3H4, C2H2, and C2H6 in the stratosphere as well as the first detection of C2H4 on Saturn in the thermal infrared (Hesman et al. 2012). Using CH4 as a thermometer of Saturn's stratosphere in the beacon regions, we can derive the mixing ratios of each of these molecules. The most common hydrocarbons (C2H2 and C2H6) serve as dynamical tracers on Saturn and their abundances may constrain vertical motion in the stratosphere. All of these hydrocarbons are products of methane photolysis. Since many of the photochemical reactions that produce heavier hydrocarbons such as C4H2 and C3H4 are temperature sensitive, the beacon region provides a natural laboratory for studying these reactions on Saturn. We will discuss the time evolution of the abundances of each of these hydrocarbons from their pre-storm values, through the period of maximum heating , and during the period of cooling that is taking place in Saturn's stratosphere.

Bjoraker, Gordon↗
NASA NTRS2012

Emitted Power Of Jupiter Based On Cassini CIRS And VIMS Observations

The emitted power of Jupiter and its meridional distribution are determined from observations by the Composite Infrared Spectrometer (CIRS) and Visual and Infrared Spectrometer (VIMS) onboard Cassini during its flyby en route to Saturn in late 2000 and early 2001. Jupiter's global- average emitted power and effective temperature are measured to be 14.10+/-0.03 W/sq m and 125.57+/-0.07 K, respectively. On a global scale, Jupiter's 5-micron thermal emission contributes approx. 0.7+/-0.1 % to the total emitted power at the global scale, but it can reach approx. 1.9+/-0.6% at 15degN. The meridional distribution of emitted power shows a significant asymmetry between the two hemispheres with the emitted power in the northern hemisphere 3.0+/-0.3% larger than that in the southern hemisphere. Such an asymmetry shown in the Cassini epoch (2000-01) is not present during the Voyager epoch (1979). In addition, the global-average emitted power increased approx. 3.8+/-1.0% between the two epochs. The temporal variation of Jupiter's total emitted power is mainly due to the warming of atmospheric layers around the pressure level of 200 mbar. The temporal variation of emitted power was also discovered on Saturn (Li et al., 2010). Therefore, we suggest that the varying emitted power is a common phenomenon on the giant planets.

Li, Liming↗
NASA NTRS2012

Seasonal Changes in Titan's Southern Stratosphere

In August 2009 Titan passed through northern spring equinox, and the southern hemisphere passed into fall. Since then, the moon's atmosphere has been closely watched for evidence of the expected seasonal reversal of stratospheric circulation, with increased northern insolation leading to upwelling, and consequent downwelling at southern high latitudes. If the southern winter mirrors the northern winter, this circulation will be traced by increases in short-lived gas species advected downwards from the upper atmosphere to the stratosphere. The Cassini spacecraft in orbit around Saturn carries on board the Composite Infrared Spectrometer (CIRS), which has been actively monitoring the trace gas populations through measurement of the intensity of their infrared emission bands (7-1000 micron). In this presentation we will show fresh evidence from recent CIRS measurements in June 2012, that the shortest-lived and least abundant minor species (C3H4, C4H2, C6H6, HC3N) are indeed increasing dramatically southwards of 50S in the lower stratosphere. Intriguingly, the more stable gases (C2H2, HCN, CO2) have yet to show this trend, and continue to exhibit their 'summer' abundances, decreasing towards the south pole. Possible chemical and dynamical explanations of these results will be discussed , along with the potential of future CIRS measurements to monitor and elucidate these seasonal changes.

Nixon, C. A.↗
NASA NTRS2012

Titan's Tropopause Temperatures from CIRS: Implications for Stratospheric Methane Cloud Formation

Analysis of Cassini Composite Infrared Spectrometer (CIRS) far-IR spectra enable the construction of Titan's temperature profile in the altitude region containing the tropopause. Whereas the methane V4 band at 1306/cm (7.7 microns) is the primary opacity source for deducing thermal structure between 100 km and 500 km, N2-N2 collision-induced absorption between 70 and 140/cm (143 microns and 71 microns) is utilized to determine temperatures at Titan's tropopause. Additional opacity due to aerosol and nitrile ices must also be taken into account in this part of the far-IR spectral region. The spectral characteristics of these particulate opacities have been deduced from CIRS limb data at 58degS, 15degS, 15degN, and 85degN. Empirically, the spectral shapes of these opacities appear to be independent of both latitude and altitude below 300 km (Anderson and Samuelson, 2011, Icarus 212, 762-778), justifying the extension of these spectral properties to all latitudes. We find that Titan's tropopause temperature is cooler than the HAS! value of 70.5K by approx. 6K. This leads to the possibility that subsidence at high northern latitudes can cause methane condensation in the winter polar stratosphere. A search for methane clouds in this region is in progress.

Anderson, C. M.↗
NASA NTRS2012

Titan Aerosol Analogs from Aromatic Precursors: Comparisons to Cassini CIRS Observations in the Thermal Infrared

Since Cassini's arrival at Titan, ppm levels of benzene (C6H6) as well as large positive ions, which may be polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs). have been detected in the atmosphere. Aromatic molecules. photolytically active in the ultraviolet, may be important in the formation of the organic aerosol comprising the Titan haze layer even when present at low mixing ratios. Yet there have not been laboratory simulations exploring the impact of these molecules as precursors to Titan's organic aerosol. Observations of Titan by the Cassini Composite Infrared Spectrometer (CIRS) in the far-infrared (far-IR) between 560 and 20/cm (approx. 18 to 500 microns) and in the mid-infrared (mid-IR) between 1500 and 600/cm (approx. 7 to 17 microns) have been used to infer the vertical variations of Titan's aerosol from the surface to an altitude of 300 km in the far-IR and between 150 and 350 km in the mid-IR. Titan's aerosol has several observed emission features which cannot be reproduced using currently available optical constants from laboratory-generated Titan aerosol analogs, including a broad far-IR feature centered approximately at 140/cm (71 microns).

Trainer, Melissa G.↗