Monitoring Titan's Atmosphere with the AEOS

California Institute Of Technology, Pasadena CA

Investigators

Abstract

AST-0123516 Brown, Michael E. The Advanced Electro-Optical System (AEOS) on Haleakela, Maui, Hawaii of the US Air Force with its adaptive optics system will be used to monitor the weather on Titan to determine the location, formation rate and evolution of large scale cloud outbursts. Measurements of the speed of the winds made in this work will provide data for an estimate of the drift of the Huygens Titan probe on the Cassini spacecraft. This will establish how long the probe can be expected to remain in communication contact with scientists. The behavior of the Methane condensation (clouds on Titan) events is of immediate interest to the interpretation of Huygens data and will provide important insight into the dynamical behavior of the atmosphere and possible localized sources of condensable Methane. A graduate student will carry out much of this work. ***