T39 (December 20th 2007 / Rev 54) Options

[ngunn]

The new 'looking ahead' with T39:
http://ciclops.org/view.php?id=4689

[alan]

The SAR swath, which will provide RADAR imaging at up to 300 m/pixel resolution, will cover Titan’s South Pole and the terrain along 30 degrees and 210 degrees west longitude, as far north as 40 degrees south latitude. This swath will cover a few of the possible lakes observed by ISS in June 2005, including a large, W-shaped dark feature near 86 degrees south, 35 degrees west.

Someone have a polar map the path can be projected on?

[ngunn]

Every time this comes up I'm cursing myself for not saving some easy link to the polar projections of the Titan map that Phil Stooke so helpfully provided while we were having a 'comparing polar regions' discussion some time ago. They're here somewhere, possibly in 'Titan's lakes revealed' but I'm not sure. If nobody else finds them I may have a hunt tomorrow. I think the last time I found them by searching all Phil's posts.

BTW any admin reading would be saving me perpetual embarassment if they would kindly correct my thread title. The next Titan flyby is on the 20th, not the 19th.

[scalbers]

How about here?

http://www.unmannedspaceflight.com/index.p...amp;#entry93306

[MarcF]

No radar SAR of Ontario Lacus itself ?
I'm sure I heard about something like that, but it seems not to be the case, at least not this time.
Marc.

[Mongo]

Every time this comes up I'm cursing myself for not saving some easy link to the polar projections of the Titan map that Phil Stooke so helpfully provided while we were having a 'comparing polar regions' discussion some time ago. They're here somewhere, possibly in 'Titan's lakes revealed' but I'm not sure. If nobody else finds them I may have a hunt tomorrow. I think the last time I found them by searching all Phil's posts.

I believe that this is the image you are looking for.

Bill

[Decepticon]

That Sar path is very close!

I can't wait to see the results.

[NMRguy]

No radar SAR of Ontario Lacus itself ?

Ralph Lorenz said that Radar should get a look at Ontario during the XM in the "T38 (Dec 05, 2007)" thread. We'll have to wait until then, but the geometry should be more optimal in that flyby (I presume).

VP - it wasnt just the VIMS team.
One of your ISS colleagues close to me was also among the chorus (including myself) that argued for T38 being used for ISS and VIMS to observe Ontario, it being a particularly good opportunity to do so. (Radar will hit it in XM, hopefully with both SAR and altimetry - the illumination will be poorer then, but we dont need no stinkin sunshine...).

[Del Palmer]

The flyby mission description is now up.

[volcanopele]

Someone have a polar map the path can be projected on?

Here ye go. Please note that the path crosses several suspected lakes in the south polar region, including a W-Shaped lake and a few other very dark features in the region.

Attached thumbnail(s)

 

[rlorenz]

Here ye go. Please note that the path crosses several suspected lakes in the south polar region, including a W-Shaped lake ......

"W-shaped Dark Feature" you mean..... RADAR will tell you if it is a lake or a dunefield....

btw - downlink isnt until this weekend and vacation may mean SAR doesnt get processed for
a while (to say nothing of the various PAO approvals required for web releases etc), so don't
assume there is some conspiracy afoot (or that Cassini blew up) just because images arent
out until the new year....

[volcanopele]

har har, if that is a dune field, I owe you a beer.

[belleraphon1]

rlorenz...

understood..... space exploration takes patience. As a layman I have learned that in spades.

REALLY interested in this SAR. I think Titan's southern equinox occured in 1994?. Sunlight has been bathing the pole for almost 13 years. So are there lakes here at the south pole that have been filled by the summer solar intensity release of latent heat and monsoon downpours, while , in the north, the long dark spell has allowed the lakes to sit intact.

Is the equatorial region, in this epoch, always too warm for stable lakes?

Clumsy way of wanting to say, what role do the seasons play in the methanological cycle?

I thinks the onset of southern pole monsoons were captured in 1995 with a big cloud outburst.....

CASSINI needs XXM mission just to watch the seasonal play on this world.

Craig

[rlorenz]

....REALLY interested in this SAR. I think Titan's southern equinox occured in 1994?.....Is the equatorial region, in this epoch, always too warm for stable lakes? ....I thinks the onset of southern pole monsoons were captured in 1995 with a big cloud outburst..........CASSINI needs XXM mission just to watch the seasonal play on this world.

S Equinox was in 2002-2003Not clear why there are no equatorial lakes - could be too dry/warm methanewise, could be because lakes are at the pole(s) because the winter stratospheric downwelling brings ethanedown to high latitudes preferentially, could be because the poles are lower in elevation, all ofthe above, or something we havent thought of yetso yes, everyone is interested in this SAR....Caitlin Griffith made first spectroscopic detection of clouds on Titan with the 1995 outburst. But an HST observation very close to that time (just a couple of weeks different, so maybethe same outburst) shows cloud system at 40 degrees NORTH - nowhere near the south pole(there is a map showing this cloud in Lifting Titan's Veil..)So yes, XXM and a follow-on mission will have a lot to see as the seasons change

S Equinox was in 2002-2003

What am I saying.? Southern Summer Solstice was 2002-2003.Southern Spring Equinox was 1995

[David]

don't assume there is some conspiracy afoot.... just because images aren't
out until the new year....

Of course there's a conspiracy -- a conspiracy to commit parochial, Earth-bound solstitial festivities. And that, of course, calls into question your loyalty to Titan. Let's see if you'll celebrate the Titanian solstice with as much commitment, comrade!