Discovery of Fog at the South Pole of Titan
While Saturn’s moon Titan appears to support an active methane hydrological cycle, no direct evidence for surface-atmosphere exchange has yet appeared. It is possible that the identified lake-features could be filled with ethane, an involatile long term residue of atmospheric photolysis; the apparen...
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ftciteseerx:oai:CiteSeerX.psu:10.1.1.419.1499 2023-05-15T18:21:50+02:00 Discovery of Fog at the South Pole of Titan M. E. Brown A. L. Smith C. Chen M. Ádámkovics The Pennsylvania State University CiteSeerX Archives application/pdf http://citeseerx.ist.psu.edu/viewdoc/summary?doi=10.1.1.419.1499 http://www.gps.caltech.edu/~mbrown/papers/ps/fog_pp.pdf en eng http://citeseerx.ist.psu.edu/viewdoc/summary?doi=10.1.1.419.1499 http://www.gps.caltech.edu/~mbrown/papers/ps/fog_pp.pdf Metadata may be used without restrictions as long as the oai identifier remains attached to it. http://www.gps.caltech.edu/~mbrown/papers/ps/fog_pp.pdf text ftciteseerx 2016-01-08T03:51:38Z While Saturn’s moon Titan appears to support an active methane hydrological cycle, no direct evidence for surface-atmosphere exchange has yet appeared. It is possible that the identified lake-features could be filled with ethane, an involatile long term residue of atmospheric photolysis; the apparent stream and channel features could be ancient from a previous climate; and the tropospheric methane clouds, while frequent, could cause no rain to reach the surface. We report here the detection of fog at the south pole of Titan during late summer using observations from the VIMS instrument on board the Cassini spacecraft. While terrestrial fog can form from a variety of causes, most of these processes are inoperable on Titan. Fog on Titan can only be caused by evaporation of liquid methane; the detection of fog provides the first direct link between surface and atmospheric methane. Based on the detections presented here, liquid methane appears widespread at the south pole of Titan in late southern summer, and the hydrolgical cycle on Titan is current active. Text South pole Unknown South Pole |
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English |
description |
While Saturn’s moon Titan appears to support an active methane hydrological cycle, no direct evidence for surface-atmosphere exchange has yet appeared. It is possible that the identified lake-features could be filled with ethane, an involatile long term residue of atmospheric photolysis; the apparent stream and channel features could be ancient from a previous climate; and the tropospheric methane clouds, while frequent, could cause no rain to reach the surface. We report here the detection of fog at the south pole of Titan during late summer using observations from the VIMS instrument on board the Cassini spacecraft. While terrestrial fog can form from a variety of causes, most of these processes are inoperable on Titan. Fog on Titan can only be caused by evaporation of liquid methane; the detection of fog provides the first direct link between surface and atmospheric methane. Based on the detections presented here, liquid methane appears widespread at the south pole of Titan in late southern summer, and the hydrolgical cycle on Titan is current active. |
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The Pennsylvania State University CiteSeerX Archives |
format |
Text |
author |
M. E. Brown A. L. Smith C. Chen M. Ádámkovics |
spellingShingle |
M. E. Brown A. L. Smith C. Chen M. Ádámkovics Discovery of Fog at the South Pole of Titan |
author_facet |
M. E. Brown A. L. Smith C. Chen M. Ádámkovics |
author_sort |
M. E. Brown |
title |
Discovery of Fog at the South Pole of Titan |
title_short |
Discovery of Fog at the South Pole of Titan |
title_full |
Discovery of Fog at the South Pole of Titan |
title_fullStr |
Discovery of Fog at the South Pole of Titan |
title_full_unstemmed |
Discovery of Fog at the South Pole of Titan |
title_sort |
discovery of fog at the south pole of titan |
url |
http://citeseerx.ist.psu.edu/viewdoc/summary?doi=10.1.1.419.1499 http://www.gps.caltech.edu/~mbrown/papers/ps/fog_pp.pdf |
geographic |
South Pole |
geographic_facet |
South Pole |
genre |
South pole |
genre_facet |
South pole |
op_source |
http://www.gps.caltech.edu/~mbrown/papers/ps/fog_pp.pdf |
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http://citeseerx.ist.psu.edu/viewdoc/summary?doi=10.1.1.419.1499 http://www.gps.caltech.edu/~mbrown/papers/ps/fog_pp.pdf |
op_rights |
Metadata may be used without restrictions as long as the oai identifier remains attached to it. |
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1766201163794874368 |