T16 RADAR SAR Swath, Land o' lakes Options

[volcanopele]

Much to my surprise, a chunk of the T16 Sar swath as been released:

http://photojournal.jpl.nasa.gov/catalog/PIA08630

An abundance of lakes can been seen. Some appear to be crater lakes (or sinkholes), like the lake at far left on the top cutout. That lake appears similar to Crater Lake in Oregon, with a little island in the middle (you can kinda see the attenuation of the signal surrounding the island as the methane gets deeper). Some lakes appear quite distinctive from the surrounding terrain, like the features on the right part of the bottom cutout.

[belleraphon1]

To quote Emily from her Planetary Society blog

"WOO HOO" ...... indeed!!!!!!!!!!!!!

But what will it take to confirm that what we see are indeed liquid lakes? Should we look for evaporation over time? What are the radiometric and scatterometry characteristics that could nail this down (are there any)?

Agree with Jason that these have the visible character of some of the calderas on Io.

How VERY COOL (pun intended)!!!!!!!!

Craig

[Guest_AlexBlackwell_*]

But what will it take to confirm that what we see are indeed liquid lakes?

If by "confirm" you mean a point at which everyone unequivocally accepts a "liquid lakes" explanation for these particular RADAR data, then probably not until a probe actually lands in one, if then. In other words, I'm sure that up until that point there will be holdouts who will offer, for example, heuristic plausibility arguments positing alternative explanations.

[David]

If by "confirm" you mean a point at which everyone unequivocally accepts a "liquid lakes" explanation for these particular RADAR data, then probably not until a probe actually lands in one, if then. In other words, I'm sure that up until that point there will be holdouts who will offer, for example, heuristic plausibility arguments positing alternative explanations.

When they come into sunlight, could Cassini detect specular glints from them?

Also, have we seen features that could be dry lakes elsewhere on Titan?

[JRehling]

Also, have we seen features that could be dry lakes elsewhere on Titan?

Quite a few, I'm sure. There are linear features in north of Tsegihi that I've always thought are (probably) dry versions of the Scottish lochs. In fact, they were among the very first features to show up in any Cassini images.

It's a reasonable conjecture that the entire darker equatorial region is a dry sea. In fact, it may be hard to explain unless it were at some point entirely submerged.

[David]

Quite a few, I'm sure. There are linear features in north of Tsegihi that I've always thought are (probably) dry versions of the Scottish lochs. In fact, they were among the very first features to show up in any Cassini images.

Hm. On earth, lochs are glacial features. So are the scattered Minnesota-style lakes to which the Titanian lakes are being compared. But glaciation isn't possible on Titan -- is it?