[X] My Assistant

[titanicrivers]

Rev 206 and T103 http://www.ciclops.org/view/7901/Rev206?js=1
T103 is another approach to the southern sub-Saturn hemisphere. An interesting area visible in the approaching T103 images is the region of Chusuk Planitia http://planetarynames.wr.usgs.gov/Feature/...AFF85346635F19C This area was imaged by VIMS in one of its highest resolution views of Titan’s surface (500m/pixel). An important paper in Icarus by Jaumann et al http://www.barnesos.net/publications/paper...on.on.Titan.pdf analyzed the VIMS spectral properties of the star shaped Bohai Sinus and adjacent Chusuk Planitia regions concluding that fluvial mechanisms and particle size/composition were responsible for the complex but systematic spectral changes noted. This paper was discussed before in this forum http://www.unmannedspaceflight.com/index.php?showtopic=4724 although not all had access to all figures and text. Since its publication there have been two equatorial storms (April 2008 http://www.unmannedspaceflight.com/index.p...c=6146&st=0 and Sept 2010 http://www.unmannedspaceflight.com/index.p...t&p=164604) and a SAR topo map http://web.mit.edu/perron/www/files/Aharonson13.pdf that lend support to the paper’s conclusion. The Chusuk Planitia region is under consideration for future missions to Titan 's surface. http://solarsystem.nasa.gov/docs/pr344.pdf

EDIT: a new link to a more readable version of the Jaumann paper has now been inserted above.

[titanicrivers]

Many NAC and WAC raw images from the T103 flyby have come down. 6 of the 8 inbound global mapping ISS images are roughly placed on the Looking Ahead Titan image below.