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Unmanned Spaceflight.com _ Titan _ Cassini ISS spots flooded playa on Titan

Posted by: volcanopele Dec 12 2008, 07:02 PM

Our paper on Titan's lakes is finally in press:

Turtle, E. P., J. E. Perry, A. S. McEwen, A. D. DelGenio, J. Barbara, R. A. West, D. D. Dawson, and C. C. Porco (2008),
Cassini Imaging of Titan's High-Latitude Lakes, Clouds, and South-Polar Surface Changes,
Geophys. Res. Lett., doi:10.1029/2008GL036186, in press.

The paper describes Cassini ISS observations acquired of Titan's high-latitude regions. The size and distribution of dark features observed in these regions were measured and these features were compared with RADAR observations of these regions. In the north polar region, nearly all of the dark features observed by ISS corresponded to a "lake" observed by RADAR. In the south, only a few lakes were seen by RADAR, far fewer than the dark spots observed by ISS, suggesting either that the lakes are thinner in the south, or that in the 3-year span between the ISS and RADAR observations, many of the lakes dried up.

ISS also observed a temporal change in the south polar region. A dark region was found near 80 South, 120 West in observations acquired in June 2005, but was not seen 11 months earlier (during the post-SOI T0 non-targeted encounter). In the paper, we suggest that the region was coated in a dark albedo material, likely liquid methane/ethane, during a rainstorm in early October 2004. This extensive storm system was observed by ground-based observers and ISS. Coincidentally, RADAR will be observing this feature next week during the T49 flyby. Given the evaporation rate expected on Titan, RADAR is unlikely to find a lake still at this location, but information on the geologic setting of the flooding event will be useful. I would expect playa fed by a system of washes.

Posted by: ngunn Dec 12 2008, 08:07 PM

That's wonderful. Thanks for the summary and great news about the upcoming RADAR coverage. I'll be trotting off to my local university library for a look at that paper for sure.

Posted by: marsbug Dec 12 2008, 08:28 PM

Very cool!

Posted by: Juramike Dec 12 2008, 09:14 PM

Congrats!

Posted by: Jason W Barnes Dec 12 2008, 10:45 PM

Paper is posted on GRL website at: http://www.agu.org/journals/pip/gl/2008GL036186-pip.pdf

- VIMS Jason

Posted by: ngunn Dec 15 2008, 09:50 AM

Well, I tried. At Bangor University: 'subscription expired', "try the public library". No joy there either. If no-one here can help I suppose I'll have to drive to Liverpool.

Posted by: Jason W Barnes Dec 16 2008, 10:11 AM

ISS Jason is a coauthor -- maybe he could post a copy on his website? I think that's consistent with the usual copyright regulations.

- Jason

Posted by: tty Dec 16 2008, 08:47 PM

That depends on the journal. However Jason could definitely email single copies to people who ask for them.

Posted by: volcanopele Dec 16 2008, 08:50 PM

I would have no problem emailing people the article. Just send me a pm.