The structure of Titan’s atmosphere from Cassini radio occultations: Occultations from the Prime and Equinox missions

Abstract: We present the results of six soundings of the atmosphere of Titan by the radio occultation technique using the Cassini spacecraft currently in orbit around Saturn. These occultations occurred during four separate targeted Titan encounters in both the Prime and Equinox missions of Cassini over 3years. They cover a wide range of latitude from 75°S to 79°N, split so that three soundings are in the northern hemisphere and three are in the southern hemisphere. Techniques and error analysis are similar to Schinder et al. (2011). The six temperature-altitude profiles presented here are compared to those earlier results. Of special interest is the sudden cooling observed at altitudes of ∼80–100km in the two high northern (winter) soundings at 74°N and 80°N, where the temperature drops by about 10K over the course of 20km. The northern profiles also exhibit a transition between the troposphere and stratosphere that is much more abrupt than in the south, and the northern tropopause temperatures are much cooler. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]