Printable Version of Topic

Click here to view this topic in its original format

Unmanned Spaceflight.com _ Titan _ Titan's changing atmosphere

Posted by: remcook May 2 2013, 10:10 AM

Titan's whole atmosphere is changing noticeably now because of its changing season, so I though I'd make a simple collage of ISS images. They are not the PDS versions, so all images are stretched differently. It's just qualitative. I've picked observations that run through different filters, with the whole disk visible, at a few points in time. I sorted the filters roughly by wavelength, but mainly by how high you're looking into the atmosphere (also noticeable by the size of the disk). Towards the UV you're looking higher, because there the haze becomes more opaque. More haze means a darker atmosphere generally. The MT filters see more and more methane absorption. More haze means a brighter atmosphere. Not sure MT1 is gas-dominated or haze-dominated though. You can nicely see the northern polar hood changing into a collar, with the poles becoming UV-light. Anyway, hope you like it. Something to keep track of in any case. Atmospheres can be fun too! smile.gif

 

Posted by: rlorenz May 2 2013, 01:49 PM

QUOTE (remcook @ May 2 2013, 05:10 AM) *
Titan's whole atmosphere is changing noticeably now because of its changing season, so I though I'd make a simple collage of ISS images. .....Not sure MT1 is gas-dominated or haze-dominated though. ..... Something to keep track of in any case.


Indeed, nice compilation ! - compare with a similar collage I made (published in 2004 - http://www.lpl.arizona.edu/~rlorenz/hst2004.pdf) with HST images for the 1992-2004 period

MT1 is 619nm, a weak methane band, so it sees something like the integrated haze column down to 30km or so (the highest tropospheric clouds may show up in it). MT3 is 889nm, a stronger band, so most of what you see as bright is haze above 80km or so, IIRC


 

Posted by: remcook May 2 2013, 02:21 PM

Indeed, I noticed your paper again while I was doing it and saw the similarities smile.gif I've not seen much work on the north-south asymmetry and polar hood, like you did with HST data, from ISS data.

Posted by: rlorenz Jan 1 2020, 09:51 PM

QUOTE (remcook @ May 2 2013, 05:10 AM) *
Titan's whole atmosphere is changing noticeably now because of its changing season, .....Towards the UV you're looking higher, because there the haze becomes more opaque. More haze means a darker atmosphere generally. The MT filters see more and more methane absorption. More haze means a brighter atmosphere.....


Has anyone done a version of this since 2013 ? There were 4 more years of changes to add....

Powered by Invision Power Board (http://www.invisionboard.com)
© Invision Power Services (http://www.invisionpower.com)