Titan's surface and atmosphere from Cassini/VIMS data with updated methane opacity

International audience; We present an analysis of Titan data acquired by the Cassini Visual and Infrared Mapping Spectrometer (VIMS), making use of recent improvements in methane spectroscopic parameters in the region 1.3-5.2 μm. We first analyzed VIMS spectra covering a 8 × 10-km2 area near the Huygens landing site in order to constrain the single scattering albedo (ω0) of the aerosols over all of the VIMS spectral range. Our aerosol model agrees with that derived from Huygens Probe Descent Imager/Spectral Radiometer (DISR) in situ measurements below 1.6 μm. At longer wavelengths, ω0 steadily decreases from 0.92 at 1.6 μm to about 0.70 at 2.5 μm and abruptly drops to about 0.50 near 2.6 μm…

Simulations of Titan Observations in the 1.58 Micron Transparency Window with High-Resolution, Low Temperature CRDS Spectra

Le méthane dans l'atmosphère de Titan. De la spectroscopie fondamentale à la planétologie

Le méthane (CH4) joue sur Tian, le plus gros satellite de Saturne, un rôle similaire à celui de l'eau sur Terre. Il y est de plus à l'origine d'une chimie organique complexe. La spectroscopie étant la technique privilégiée pour mesurer le CH4 dans les atmosphères planétaires, des modèles précis de l'absorption de la lumière par cette molécule doivent être développés. Les résultats récents obtenus dans ce domaine à l'Institut Carnot de Bourgogne, en collaboration étroite avec des planétologues, permettent notamment de contribuer à l'interprétation des résultats de la mission Cassini-Huygens.

Corrigendum to "Titan's surface and atmosphere from Cassini/VIMS data with updated methane opacity" [Icarus 226 (2013) 470-486]

0019-1035/$ see front matter 2013 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved. http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.icarus.2013.07.015 DOI of original article: http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.icarus.2013.05.033 ⇑ Corresponding author. Address: LESIA, Observatoire de Paris, Section de Meudon, 92195 Meudon Cedex, France. Fax: +33 145072806. E-mail address: bruno.bezard@obspm.fr (B. Bezard). 1 Present address: Foundation ‘‘La main a la pâte’’, Montrouge, France. M. Hirtzig , B. Bezard a,⇑, E. Lellouch , A. Coustenis , C. de Bergh , P. Drossart , A. Campargue , V. Boudon , V. Tyuterev , P. Rannou , T. Cours , S. Kassi , A. Nikitin , D. Mondelain , S. Rodriguez , S. Le Mouelic g

Titan's surface albedo variations over a Titan season from near-infrared CFHT/FTS spectra

International audience; We have observed Titan in a series of campaigns from 1991 to 1996 with the Fourier Transform Spectrometer on the CFH telescope. The data acquired provide a lightcurve from the geometric albedos in the 0.9–View the MathML source spectral region. The 1991–1993 data were previously analyzed in Coustenis et al. [1995. Titan's surface: composition and variability from its near-infrared albedo. Icarus 118, 87–104] with a spherical particle code by McKay et al. [1989. The thermal structure of Titan's atmosphere. Icarus 80, 23–53]. We present here three new datasets from the 1994, 1995 and 1996 observations, with additional information from the 0.94-μm methane window on Tita…

Methane in Titan's atmosphere: from fundamental spectroscopy to planetology

The methane molecule (CH4) is relatively abundant in the Universe and in particular in our Solar System. On Earth, it is the main compound of natural gas and is also the second greenhouse gas of anthropic origin. On Saturn's satellite Titan it plays a role similar to water on Earth and leads to a complex chemistry.

Le méthane dans l’atmosphère de Titan - De la spectroscopie fondamentale à la planétologie

Le methane (CH4) joue sur Tian, le plus gros satellite de Saturne, un role similaire a celui de l'eau sur Terre. Il y est de plus a l'origine d'une chimie organique complexe. La spectroscopie etant la technique privilegiee pour mesurer le CH4 dans les atmospheres planetaires, des modeles precis de l'absorption de la lumiere par cette molecule doivent etre developpes. Les resultats recents obtenus dans ce domaine a l'Institut Carnot de Bourgogne, en collaboration etroite avec des planetologues, permettent notamment de contribuer a l'interpretation des resultats de la mission Cassini-Huygens.

Titan's 3-micron spectral region from ISO high-resolution spectroscopy

Abstract The near-infrared spectrum of Titan, Saturn's largest moon and one of the Cassini/Huygens' space mission primary targets, covers the 0.8 to 5 micron region in which it shows several weak CH 4 absorption regions, and in particular one centered near 2.75 micron. Due to the interference of telluric absorption, only part of this window region (2.9–3.1 μm) has previously been observed from the ground [Noll, K.S., Geballe, T.R., Knacke, R., Pendleton, F., Yvonne, J., 1996. Icarus 124, 625–631; Griffith, C.A., Owen, T., Miller, G.A., Geballe, T., 1998. Nature 395, 575–578; Griffith, C.A., Owen, T., Geballe, T.R., Rayner, J., Rannou, P., 2003. Science 300, 628–630; Geballe, T.R., Kim, S.J.…

Applications of a New Methane Linelist to the Modeling of Titan's Spectrum in the 1.58 Micron Window

International audience

Recent Applications and Future Prospects of Methane Spectroscopy to the Atmosphere of Titan

The 1997 spectroscopic GEISA databank

International audience; The current version GEISA-97 of the computer-accessible database system GEISA (Gestion et Etude des Informations Spectroscopiques Atmosphériques: Management and Study of Atmospheric Spectroscopic Information) is described. This catalogue contains 1,346,266 entries. These are spectroscopic parameters required to describe adequately the individual spectral lines belonging to 42 molecules (96 isotopic species) and located between 0 and 22,656 cm-1. The featured molecules are of interest in studies of the terrestrial as well as the other planetary atmospheres, especially those of the Giant Planets. GEISA-97 contains also a catalog of absorption cross-sections of molecule…

First Applications of New Methane Linelists to the Modelling of Titan's Spectrum in the 1.58 and 1.28 Micron Windows

Application of new methane linelists to Cassini and Earth-based data of Titan

International audience

Methane and carbon monoxide infrared emissions observed at the Canada-France-Hawaii Telescope during the collision of comet SL-9 with Jupiter

Observations with the Fourier Transform Spectrometer were conducted in spectral ranges from 1.6 to 4.7 µm from July 17 to 21 (UT) on the hot plumes appearing on the limb as well as hours or days after the impacts. We present here an analysis of the methane emission observed at 3.3 µm some 10 min after the C impact, indicating the presence of a very small (less than 100 km wide) hot region with temperatures in the 750–1500 K range within the 0.1- to 0.01-mbar region. We also report the detection of CO emission at 4.7 µm 4.5 hrs after the L impact, indicative of a temperature of 274±10 K at the ∼1016 CO molec cm−2 level. The observations suggest that the stratospheric temperature decreases wi…