Aerosols in Titan’s Atmosphere
Vertical Structure of the Haze in Titan’s Atmosphere.
Narrow-band imaging of Titan with an acousto-optic imaging camera enables us to center on specific atmospheric windows at 940, 830, and 750 nm, which allows us to study the haze in Titan’s lower atmosphere. We have found evidence for a clearing of the haze in the lowest ~ 50 km on Titan, suggesting a dynamical or condensation process for removal. More recently, Carrie Anderson and I have been involved in similar studies that make use of HST/STIS data from 2000. She is using those data to study the vertical profile of both the haze and methane on Titan, both of which strongly influence the structure of Titan’s atmosphere.
Past/Present Students Working on this Project:
Dr. Carrie Anderson (NMSU Ph.D., now NASA postdoc at GSFC)
Daniel Lofton (NMSU B.A., now at Harris Corporation)
We used telescopes equipped with adaptive optics to resolve the disk of Titan and image it in narrow “windows” that probe the lower atmosphere and surface. Upper left: the Mount Wilson 100” telescope, where we observed in 1999 and 2000. Right (upper and lower): Titan images from Mount Wilson in Oct.-Nov. 1999 at 940 nm. Lower left: optical setup of NMSU AOTF camera at AEOS 3.63 m telescope (Jan. 2002).
Modeling results from our Mt. Wilson data, showing the required surface albedo and altitude of haze removal to fit our limb-darkening observations.
