Titan's Atmosphere in the Pre-Cassini Decade: Establishing Long-Term Behavior from HST and Ground-Based/AO Observations

Southwest Research Institute, San Antonio TX

Investigators

Abstract

AST 0206390 Young The primary goal of Dr. Eliot Young's research project is to map Titan's evolving haze and methane distributions, a task for which the Hubble Space Telescope (HST) observations of the past decade are well suited. A second goal is to determine the separate methane and haze distributions in Titan's atmosphere, for which Dr. Young will use a synergistic combination of CCD-wavelength HST and near-IR ground-based images. This goal addresses the questions of cloud formation and methane's apparent supersaturation in Titan's troposphere. In a similar vein, Dr. Young will also use microphysical models of ethane cloud formation to interpret the vertical haze and methane profiles that will be extracted from HST and Keck adaptive optics images. A long baseline of spatially resolved imaging will directly address the questions of how Titan's atmosphere undergoes seasonal changes. The results of this project will provide a valuable context for the upcoming Cassini and Huygens spacecraft missions; observational tests for existing models of cloud and haze formation and transport; and observational evidence for the evolving conditions in Titan's troposphere, especially with respect to the supersaturation of methane, the conditions for convection, and the conditions for cloud formation. ***