1. Long-term chemical composition and temperature variations on Titan
- Author
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Coustenis, Athéna, Bampasidis, Georgios, Achterberg, Richard K., Lavvas, Panayiotis, Nixon, Conor A., Jennings, Donald E., Teanby, Nicholas A., Michael, F. F., Orton, Glenn S., Vinatier, Sandrine, Carlson, Ronald C., Henry, Florence, Laboratoire d'études spatiales et d'instrumentation en astrophysique (LESIA), Université Pierre et Marie Curie - Paris 6 (UPMC)-Institut national des sciences de l'Univers (INSU - CNRS)-Observatoire de Paris, Université Paris sciences et lettres (PSL)-Université Paris sciences et lettres (PSL)-Université Paris Diderot - Paris 7 (UPD7)-Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique (CNRS), Pôle Planétologie du LESIA, Laboratoire d'études spatiales et d'instrumentation en astrophysique = Laboratory of Space Studies and Instrumentation in Astrophysics (LESIA), Institut national des sciences de l'Univers (INSU - CNRS)-Observatoire de Paris, Université Paris sciences et lettres (PSL)-Université Paris sciences et lettres (PSL)-Sorbonne Université (SU)-Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique (CNRS)-Université Paris Cité (UPCité)-Institut national des sciences de l'Univers (INSU - CNRS)-Observatoire de Paris, Université Paris sciences et lettres (PSL)-Université Paris sciences et lettres (PSL)-Sorbonne Université (SU)-Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique (CNRS)-Université Paris Cité (UPCité), National and Kapodistrian University of Athens (NKUA), Department of Astronomy, Univ. of Maryland, Groupe de spectrométrie moléculaire et atmosphérique (GSMA), Université de Reims Champagne-Ardenne (URCA)-Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique (CNRS), NASA/Goddard Space Flight Center (NASA/GSFC), University of Bristol [Bristol], Jet Propulsion Laboratory, California Institute of Technology (JPL), and IACS, The Catholic University of America
- Subjects
[PHYS.ASTR]Physics [physics]/Astrophysics [astro-ph] ,[PHYS.ASTR] Physics [physics]/Astrophysics [astro-ph] - Abstract
International audience; Nine years after Cassini's Saturn orbit insertion, we look at the evolution of the thermal and chemical composition of Titan's atmosphere by combining Cassini CIRS recordings and the related ground- and space- based observations. In particular, we use Cassini/CIRS data from 2004-2013 to derive the temperature structure [1,2,7] and the neutral chemistry at latitudes between 50°S and 50°N [2]. The peak in abundance is observed around the northern spring equinox, with a rapid decrease after mid-2009, indicating that the vortex has shrunk. The fulfillment of one Titanian year of space observations provides us for the first time with the opportunity to evaluate the relative role of different physical processes in the long term evolution of this complex environment, as also reported by other studies [8-10]. By comparing V1 (1980), ISO (1997) and Cassini (2010) [2-6] data we find that a return to the 1980 abundance values is achieved for most molecules at all latitudes, indicative of the solar radiation being the dominating energy source at 10 AU, as for the Earth, in agreement with predictions by GCM and photochemical models. The few exceptions set important constraints. We show that wrt V1 the stratospheric chemical composition shows higher values near the northern fall equinox (near 1997) and lower ones at the spring equinox (near 2009). The cause could be spatial changes (due to Titan's inclination) in the energy input to Titan's atmosphere as a driver for changes in the advection patterns, circulation, etc which in turn provide a stronger variability in the latitudinal abundances of photochemical species after some time. References [1] Achterberg R., et al., Icarus, 211, 686-698, 2011. [2] Bampasidis et al., ApJ 760, 144, 8 p., 2012. [3] Coustenis, A., Bézard, B., Icarus,115, 126-140, 1995. [4] Coustenis, A., et al., Icarus, 161, 383-403, 2003. [5] Coustenis, A., et al., Icarus, 189, 35-62, 2007. [6] Coustenis, A., et al., Icarus, 207, 461-476, 2010. [7] Coustenis, A., et al., submitted. [8] Teanby, N., et al., Icarus, 193, 595-611, 2008. [9] Teanby, N., et al., Icarus, 193, 595-611, 2010. [10] Vinatier, S., et al., Icarus, 205, 559-570, 2010.
- Published
- 2013