[X] My Assistant

[belleraphon1]

All...

the latest CHARM presentation details the longitudunal dunes on Titan.

http://saturn.jpl.nasa.gov/multimedia/prod...HARM_Lorenz.pdf

Slide 4 shows that Titan albedo features are buried in the old Voyager data. Neat.
Slides 11 is a great reprojection of DISR.
Several slides with great Earth SIR-C and CASSINI Titan dune comparisons.
Slide 41 shows a section of T21 with dunes that I do not believe has been released as yet.
Slide 42 dune orientations....
Slide 44 showing calculated paths for Titan balloon probes (data taken fron the dune orientations acting as weather vanes).

Very cool...

Doug.... I was not sure which Titan thread to place this in so I created one. Move it where it makes sense.

Craig

[Juramike]

Here is a comparison of the aspect of the "mantle islands" that surround the RADAR brightest terrain. (Presumably the RADAR brightest terrain are the steepest roughest ridges poking up through the surface).



In the Equatorial region, the bright highlands are surrounded by a mantle which is covered by mobile dune sands arriving from the W. This gives an aerodynamic teardrop shape to the mantle. The upwind side is blunt while the downwind side tapers gracefully.

In the Equatorial region, the background mobile unit is darker than the mantle. These are the RADAR dark (smooth) dune sands.



In the Mid-latitudes, the bright highlands are surrounded by a mantle which is covered by lighter material arriving from the W. We see the same teardrop aspect to the mantled brightlands. The upwind (usually W) side is blunt while the downwind side (usually E) tapers gracefully.

In the Mid-latitudes the mantle is covered by a relatively brightermobile deposit. (A small dunefield can be seen that may have formed from this material). There are many areas that seem to have parallel streaky lighter deposits in several of the polar RADAR swaths. Several of these appear blown against some type of obstacle. [Scan through the T25, T23, Ta, and T28 RADAR Swaths for more examples]

So the mid-latitudes apparently have mobile windblown material that is RADAR-bright.

This either implies the windblown material is rough on the RADAR-wavelength scale (2 cm) or may be porous and the RADAR-brightness is due to volume scattering.

I'll speculate that the lighter mid-latitude deposit is either forming little clumpys that bounce along in the wind (or that clod up after deposition) or it may be very light and fluffy material that forms porous structures that appear RADAR brighter (possibly post-deposition?).

Like windblown mid-latitude dust bunnies.

-Mike