Agreed, very interesting paper!

I wonder though, less about waves that might be raised by general circulation winds, or even gravity winds, but what sort of outflow winds the putative Titan thunderstorms might generate. These effects might be dramatic but short lived and so hard to 'catch'.

Has there been any work done on the kinds of effects mesoscale thunderstorm clusters could generate on Titan?

P

Thanks, thats kept my imagination busy for a good while!

That's from the goolaciers calving into the glake.

Gross.

Indeed, if Ontario Lacus is so flat, so smooth, it may be, as you say, because it is made of a viscous material.
I guess that methane, ethane and propane are key elements of this material.

I'm afraid that this viscous liquid or mud has nothing to do, visually speaking, with an atoll on Earth with nice, transparent liquids (unless it is pure ethane or methane).

I keep in mind the enigmatic "Inky Stains" (darker than dark) of Iapetus which may represent the hydrocarbon mud you are imagining.

Link to the image of the Inky Stains:
http://saturn.jpl.nasa.gov/photos/imagedet...fm?imageId=2733

Well, is it possible that *just* the methane moves, and so at the other end of the cycle (which we haven't yet seen) Kraken would be almost entirely ethane?

If I understand it right, there's going to be a complex mix of at least three volatiles in the lakes: nitrogen, methane, and ethane. So the evaporating material would also be an (enriched) mix of the three components, with the more volatile (nitrogen and methane) probably the larger component.

The stuff left behind will be enriched mix in the lower vapor pressure material, ethane in this case.

This is assuming that there is no azeotrope is formed between nitrogen, methane, ethane. ('Course one of the other components in a Titan lake might actually cut an azeotrope, too...)

I don't think it would be possible to have all the ethane left behind in the "pot" and the other components "distilled out".
(Technically an evaporating lake is a single plate distillation of two hydrocarbon solvents (and nitrogen). To be able to get a clean fractional distillation in a lab would require a spinning band distillation with many theoretical plates, again assuming no azeotrope.)

Well it looks like whatever the physical characteristics, the stuff in the lakes exhibit specular reflection ... and rather dramatically.

Glint of Sunlight

Today is the day for dramatic pictures!

Cool, with the exception of the Kraken Mare part

What's wrong with the Kraken Mare part?

The Glint wasn't found in Kraken Mare, but a large lake to the west of it.

Here's a map:

Thanks, Jason. Not gonna ask why wrt the error, but do very much appreciate the correction & accuracy!

They sure look connected to me, man. I don't see the problem.

- Jason