HR: 1340h
AN: P53A-1441 [Abstracts]
TI: Characteristics Of Titan's Clouds from VIMS T0 Observations
AU: * Griffith, C A
EM: griffith@lpl.arizona.edu
AF: University of Arizona, Dept. of Planetary Sciences
1629 E. University Blvd, Tucson, AZ 85721
United States
AU: Baines, K
EM: kbaines@mail1.jpl.nasa.gov
AF: Jet Propulsion Laboratory, 4800 Oak Grove Drive, Pasadena, CA 91109
United States
AU: Buratti, B
EM: bburatti@scn.jpl.nasa.gov
AF: Jet Propulsion Laboratory, 4800 Oak Grove Drive, Pasadena, CA 91109
United States
AU: Clark, R
EM: rclark@usgs.gov
AF: USGS, Denver Federal Center, Denver, CO 80225
United States
AU: Drossart, P
EM: Pierre.Drossart@obspm.fr
AF: Observatoire de Paris Meudon, 5 Place Jules Janssen, Meudon, 92190
France
AU: Owen, T
EM: owen@hubble.IFA.Hawaii.edu
AF: University of Hawaii, 2680 Woodlawn drive, Honolulu, HI 96822
United States
AU: Nelson, R
EM: robert.m.nelson@jpl.nasa.gov
AF: Jet Propulsion Laboratory, 4800 Oak Grove Drive, Pasadena, CA 91109
United States
AB:
Over the past 4 years, ground-based images have shown that
Titan sports high cloud systems on a daily basis,
which have been observed exclusively in Titan's south polar
region. These clouds are composed of methane ice and may
be a component of a liquid cycle similar to Earth's hydrologic
cycle, with clouds, rain and seas. This past July, Cassini gave us the first
direct view of Titan's high clouds as the spacecraft passed below
Titan's south pole. Observations by Cassini's Visual and Infrared
Mapping Spectrometer (VIMS) illuminate the altitudes,
thicknesses and extents of Titan's clouds, which were dramatically
imaged in detail by the ISS instrument. We find, consistent with
ground-based observations, that the clouds reside in the high
troposphere. In addition, at times the clouds are optically thick over a
region of at least 100 km. Here I will discuss the characteristics
of Titan's clouds as measured by VIMS, and implications of these
results in terms of the formation of Titan's clouds.
DE: 5409 Atmospheres--structure and dynamics
DE: 6280 Saturnian satellites
DE: 0300 ATMOSPHERIC COMPOSITION AND STRUCTURE
DE: 0320 Cloud physics and chemistry
DE: 0343 Planetary atmospheres (5405, 5407, 5409, 5704, 5705, 5707)
SC: Planetary Sciences [P]
MN: 2004 AGU Fall Meeting