GGrantIndex
← Search

THE CENTRAL PHENOMENON CONNECTING AND LIKELY EXPLAINING MANY OF THE FEATURES SEEN ON THE SURFACE OF TITAN - FROM WET LAKES TO DRY DUNES TO FLUVIAL CHANNELS -- IS THE SEASONAL METHANE METEOROLOGICAL CYCLE. UNDERSTANDING THE LOCATIONS AND STYLE OF CLOUD ACTIVITY ON TITAN IS THE KEY TO UNDERSTANDING THIS SEASONAL CYCLE'S INTERACTIONS WITH THE GEOLOGY HYDROLOGY AND ATMOSPHERE OF THE SATELLITE. OUR GROUND-BASED PROGRAMS HAVE BEEN CONTINUALLY MONITORING THE CLOUDS ON TITAN SINCE NOVEMBER 2001. THESE OBSERVATIONS PROVIDE FREQUENT COVERAGE BUT ONLY AT MODEST SPATIAL RESOLUTION AND SENSITIVITY. CASSINI IN CONTRAST ALLOWS THE DETECTION OF MUCH SMALLER METEOROLOGICAL EVENTS BUT ONLY FOR BRIEF MOMENTS DURING FLYBYS. THE GROUND-BASED VIEW OF TITAN CLOUDS REVEALS THAT TITAN IS A METEOROLOGICALLY DYNAMIC PLACE WITH CLOUDS CHANGING ON MUCH FASTER TIME SCALES THAN THE SPACING OF CASSINI FLYBYS THAT MAJOR CHANGES HAVE OCCURRED SINCE THE TIME OF LARGE CLOUD OUTBURSTS AT SOUTHERN SUMMER SOLSTICE AND THAT PERHAPS THE SEVERAL-YEARS-LONG QUIET PERIOD ON TITAN IS NOW COMING TO A DRAMATIC END. THE CASSINI VIEW IN CONTRAST SUGGESTS THAT CLOUDS ON TITAN ARE A RELATIVELY STABLE FEATURE WITH SMALL CLOUDS APPEARING AT CONSISTENT LATITUDES AT ALL TIMES AND THAT NO MAJOR CHANGES ARE OCCURRING AS TITAN MOVES TOWARDS EQUINOX. RECONCILING THESE VERY DIFFERENT VIEWS OF TITAN AND DEVELOPING A NEW VIEW CONSISTENT WITH ALL OF THE AVAILABLE OBSERVATIONS IS THE MAJOR GOAL OF THIS PROPOSAL. THE INVESTIGATIONS PROPOSED HERE INCLUDE CONTINUED OF ALL OF THE RELEASED TITAN VIMS DATA AND ISS DATA TO MAP CLOUD LOCATIONS DETERMINE CLOUD HEIGHTS AND MORPHOLOGIES AND STUDY CLOUD DYNAMICS. WE WILL THEN RIGOROUSLY COMPARE THESE RESULTS TO OUR EXTENSIVE SET OF PHOTOMETRIC SPECTROSCOPIC AND IMAGINING DATA FROM THE GROUND AND FINALLY COMBINE THESE VIEWS TO UNDERSTAND THE SEASONAL METHANE METEOROLOGICAL CYCLE OF TITAN AT ALL SCALES.

$258,958FY2010National Aeronautics and Space AdministrationNASA

California Institute Of Technology, Pasadena CA

Investigators

View source on USAspending →