Titan's aerosols: Comparison between our model and DISR findings

Our model Dimitrov, V., Bar-Nun, A., 1999. A model of energy dependent agglomeration of hydrocarbon aerosol particles and implication to Titan's aerosol. J. Aerosol. Sci. 30(1), 35-49] describes the experimentally found polymerization of C₂H₂ and HCN to form aerosol embryos, their growth and adherence to form various aerosols objects Bar-Nun, A., Kleinfeld, I., Ganor, E., 1988. Shape and optical properties of aerosols formed by photolysis of C₂H₂, C₂H₄ and HCN. J. Geophys. Res. 93, 8383-8387]. These loose fractal objects describe well the findings of DISR on the Huygens probe Tomasko, M.G., Bézard, B., Doose, L., Engel, S., Karkoschka, E., 2008. Measurements of methane absorption by the descent imager/spectral radiometer (DISR) during its descent through Titan's atmosphere. Planet. Space Sci., this issue, doi:10.1016/j.pss.2007]. These include (1) various regular objects of R=(0.035-0.064)×10⁻⁶ m, as compared with DISR's 0.05×10⁻⁶ m; (2) diverse low and high fractal structures composed of random combinations of various regular and irregular objects; (3) the number density of fractal particles is 6.9×10⁶ m⁻³ at Z=100 km, as compared with DISR's finding of 5.0×10⁶ m⁻³ at Z=80 km; (4) the number of structural units per higher fractals in the atmosphere at Z∼100 km is (2400-2700), as compared with DISR's 3000, and their size being of R=(5.4-6.4)×10⁻⁶ m will satisfy this value and (5) condensation of CH₄ on the highly fractal structures could begin at the altitude where thin methane clouds were observed, filling somewhat the new open fractal structures.