[X] My Assistant

[Guest_AlexBlackwell_*]

An interesting (and topical) paper in press with the journal Planetary and Space Science:

Titan's methane cycle
Planet. Space Sci., In Press, Corrected Proof, Available online 25 July 2006
Sushil K. Atreya et al.
Abstract
Preprint (451 Kb PDF)

[elakdawalla]

Cassini has seen clouds that were gone later; I think that's the only data you can use to infer storm activity unless the VIMS team's recent detections of surface changes have something to do with storm activity (see the thread on the EuroPlaNet abstracts). I suppose you could also look for changes in drainage patterns in two overlapping SAR swaths but the amount of overlap they'll get over the course of the mission is pretty small and I worry also that the difference in viewing geometry between the two overlapping swaths will always make you wonder whether you're seeing actual surface change or just features that look different when the radar look angle is different.

It's actually easier to monitor long-term cloud formation and dissipation from Earth than it is to do from Cassini, at least for relatively big cloud systems; the JGR issue has a couple of papers from Imke de Pater's team using the Keck II telescope to do that. But you can't actually see rain falling with either Cassini or Earth-based telescopes.

--Emily