Titan: Far-infrared and microwave remote sensing of methane clouds and organic haze |
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Authors: | W Reid Thompson Carl Sagan |
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Institution: | Laboratory for Planetary Studies, Space Sciences Building, Cornell University, Ithaca, New York 14853, USA |
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Abstract: | It is shown that Titan's surface and plausible atmospheric thermal opacity sources—gaseous N2, CH4, and H2, CH4 cloud, and organic haze—are sufficient to match available Earth-based and Voyager observations of Titan's thermal emission spectrum. Dominant sources of thermal emission are the surface for wavelenghts λ ? 1 cm, atmospheric N2 for 1 cm ? λ ? 200 μm,, condensed and gaseous CH4 for 200 μm ? λ ? 20 μm, and molecular bands and organic haze for λ ? 20 μm. Matching computed spectra to the observed Voyager IRIS spectra at 7.3 and 52.7° emission angles yields the following abundances and locations of opacity sources: CH4 clouds: 0.1 g cm? at a planetocentric radius of 2610–2625 km, 0.3 g cm?2 at 2590–2610 km, total 0.4 ± 0.1 g cm–2 above 2590 km; organic haze: above 2750 km; tropospheric H2: 0.3 ± 0.1 mol%. This is the first quantitative estimate of the column density of condensed methane (or CH4/C2H6) on Titan. Maximum transparency in the middle to far IR occurs at 19 μm where the atmospheric vertical absorption optical depth is A particle radius in the upper portion of the CH4 cloud is indicated by the apparent absence of scattering effects. |
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