[X] My Assistant

[titanicrivers]

Some of those cool Sept 21 images are increasing my anticipation of the T72 flyby (due to happen in about 17 hrs)!

[titanicrivers]

Titan with the spectacular T72 S Senkyo cloud were photographed nearly simultaneously through spectral bandpass filter combinations on Sept 27. The CB3 CL1 filter combo provided striking cloud and surface detail at 938 nm http://saturn.jpl.nasa.gov/photos/raw/rawi...?imageID=228405
whereas photos through the MT3 CL1 filter showed no surface and only a hint of the cloud but emphasized the NS hemispheric asymmetry of the lower stratospheric haze. http://saturn.jpl.nasa.gov/photos/raw/rawi...?imageID=228415
The stratospheric haze, detached haze layer and dark N polar hood were prominent in the CL1 UV3 image http://saturn.jpl.nasa.gov/photos/raw/rawi...?imageID=228408
Difference Blending CL1 CB3 and CL1 MT3 filtered images in Photoshop produced some interesting results however! (see below). This blending mode emphasizes color pixel brightness differences between overlaid images producing a darkening of blended pixel areas where the 2 images differ. Adjusting the opacity of the blend to 50% produces interesting effects in the T72 cloud showing preservation of the central portion (yellow arrow) but disappearence of the N>S arms of the cloud (small white arrows, 3rd image in the animation). This attenuation is most prominent at higher latitudes beginning just to the North of the NS hemisphereic asymmetry. Increasing the opacity of the difference blend to 90% reveals much of the cloud (excepting the central portion) as a dark area (last image in the animated sequence below).
The graphic on the right shows the difference blend of a CB3 and UV3 image compared to the CB3 MT3 image at 50% opacity suggesting the entire cloud is well below the level of stratospheric haze level seen through the UV3 filter but only the NS arms of the cloud are below the deeper atmospheric level reached with the MT3 filter.
Making several assumptions, one layman’s interpretation of these observations suggests the ends of the NS arms of the cloud are descending to a lower height in the troposphere as they move to increasing latitudes away from the center of the cloud and are not a uniform flat cloud top. This effect is more pronounced to the North of the zonal hemispheric asymmetry (as suggested in Ugordan's post #13 as well). Perhaps this pattern supports the theoretical pattern of equinox atmospheric flow mentioned in the article of post #17 in this thread.