Seasonal changes in Titan’s stratosphere during the Cassini mission with CIRS

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Athena Coustenis ◽  
Donald Jennings ◽  
Richard Achterberg ◽  
Panayotis Lavvas ◽  
Conor Nixon ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Chemical Composition ◽  
High Resolution ◽  
Far Infrared ◽  
Large Temperature ◽  
Neutral Atmosphere ◽  
South Pole ◽  
The South ◽  
The North ◽  
Northern Summer ◽  
Cassini Mission

<p>Titan’s atmosphere and surface (a complex system) evolve with season, as Titan follows Saturn in its orbit around the Sun for 30 years with an inclination of about 27°. We performed an analysis of spectra acquired by Cassini/CIRS at high resolution covering the range from 600 to 1500 cm-1 since the beginning and until the last flyby of Titan in 2017 and describe the temperature and chemical composition variations ([1-3]. By applying our radiative transfer code (ARTT) to the high-resolution CIRS spectra we study the stratospheric evolution over almost two Titan seasons [1,2], corresponding to the Cassini mission duration. CIRS nadir and limb spectral together show variations in temperature and chemical composition in the stratosphere during the Cassini mission, before and after the Northern Spring Equinox (NSE) and also during one Titan year.</p> <p>Since the 2010 equinox we have thus reported on monitoring of Titan’s stratosphere near the poles and in particular on the observed strong temperature decrease and compositional enhancement above Titan’s southern polar latitudes since 2012 and until 2014 of several trace species, such as complex hydrocarbons and nitriles, which were previously observed only at high northern latitudes. This effect followed the transition of Titan’s seasons from northern winter in 2002 to northern summer in 2017, while at that latter time the southern hemisphere was entering winter.</p> <p>Our data show a continued decrease of the abundances which we first reported to have started in 2015. The 2017 data we have acquired and analyzed here are important because they are the only ones recorded since 2014 close to the south pole in the far-infrared nadir mode at high resolution. A large temperature increase in the southern polar stratosphere (by 10-50 K in the 0.5 mbar-0.05 mbar pressure range) is found and a change in the temperature profile’s shape. The 2017 observations also show a related significant decrease in most of the abundances which must have started sometime between 2014 and 2017 [3]. In our work, we show that the equatorial latitudes remain rather constant throughout the Cassini mission.</p> <p>We have thus shown that the south pole of Titan is now losing its strong enhancement, while the north pole also slowly continues its decrease in gaseous opacities. It would have been interesting to see when this might happen, but the Cassini mission ended in September 2017. Perhaps future ground-based measurements and the Dragonfly mission can pursue this investigation and monitor Titan’s atmosphere to characterize the seasonal events. Our results set constraints on GCM and photochemical models.</p> <p> </p> <p><strong>References:</strong></p> <p> [1] Coustenis et al., 2016, Icarus 270, 409-420</p> <p>[2] Coustenis et al., 2018, Astroph. J., Lett., 854, no2</p> <p>[3] Coustenis et al., 2020. Titan’s neutral atmosphere seasonal variations up to the end of the Cassini mission. Icarus 344, 113413. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.icarus.2019.113413.<button class="clickandreadBtn" title="La ressource a été trouvée dans Unpaywall" name="CLICKANDREADLink"><img src="data:image/svg+xml;base64,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" width="27" /></button></p>

Evolution of Titan’s stratosphere with Cassini/CIRS

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Athena Coustenis ◽  
Donald Jennings ◽  
Richard Achterberg ◽  
Panayotis Lavvas ◽  
Conor Nixon ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
High Resolution ◽  
Chemical Species ◽  
Far Infrared ◽  
Organic Content ◽  
Large Temperature ◽  
Neutral Atmosphere ◽  
South Pole ◽  
The South ◽  
The North ◽  
Cassini Mission

<p>Titan is a unique body in the solar system in particular because of its earth-like surface features, its putative undersurface liquid water ocean and its large organic content in the atmosphere and on the surface . These chemical species evolve with season, as Titan follows Saturn in its orbit around the Sun with an inclination of about 27°. We performed an analysis of spectra acquired by Cassini/CIRS at high resolution covering the range from 10 to 1500 cm<sup>-1</sup> since the beginning and until the last flyby of Titan in 2017 and describe the temperature and composition variations ([1-3]. By applying our radiative transfer code (ARTT) to the high-resolution CIRS spectra we study the stratospheric evolution over almost two Titan seasons [1,2]. CIRS nadir and limb spectral together show variations in temperature and chemical composition in the stratosphere during the Cassini mission, before and after the Northern Spring Equinox (NSE) and also during one Titan year.</p><p>Since the 2010 equinox we have thus reported on monitoring of Titan’s stratosphere near the poles and in particular on the observed strong temperature decrease and compositional enhancement above Titan’s southern polar latitudes since 2012 and until 2014 of several trace species, such as complex hydrocarbons and nitriles, which were previously observed only at high northern latitudes. This effect followed the transition of Titan’s seasons from northern winter in 2002 to northern summer in 2017, while at that latter time the southern hemisphere was entering winter.</p><p>Our data show a continued decrease of the abundances which we first reported to have started in 2015. The 2017 data we have acquired and analyzed here are important because they are the only ones recorded since 2014 close to the south pole in the far-infrared nadir mode at high resolution. A large temperature increase in the southern polar stratosphere (by 10-50 K in the 0.5 mbar-0.05 mbar pressure range) is found and a change in the temperature profile’s shape. The 2017 observations also show a related significant decrease in most of the abundances which must have started sometime between 2014 and 2017 [3]. In our work, we show that the equatorial latitudes remain rather constant throughout the Cassini mission.</p><p>We have thus shown that the south pole of Titan is now losing its strong enhancement, while the north pole also slowly continues its decrease in gaseous opacities. It would have been interesting to see when this might happen, but the Cassini mission ended in September 2017. Perhaps future ground-based measurements and the Dragonfly mission can pursue this investigation and monitor Titan’s atmosphere to characterize the seasonal events. Our results set constraints on GCM and photochemical models.</p><p>References:</p><p> [1] Coustenis et al., 2016, Icarus 270, 409-420; [2] Coustenis et al., 2018, Astroph. J., Lett., 854, no2; [3] Coustenis et al., 2020. Titan’s neutral atmosphere seasonal variations up to the end of the Cassini mission. Icarus 344, 113413. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.icarus.2019.113413.</p>

scholarly journals Evolution of the atmospheric organic content on Titan with seasons

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Athena Coustenis ◽  
Donald Jennings ◽  
Richard Achterberg ◽  
Panayotis Lavvas ◽  
Conor Nixon ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
High Resolution ◽  
Chemical Species ◽  
Far Infrared ◽  
Organic Content ◽  
Large Temperature ◽  
South Pole ◽  
The South ◽  
The North ◽  
Northern Summer ◽  
Cassini Mission

<p>Titan is one of the most promising bodies in the solar system from the astrobiological perspective in particular because of its large organic content in the atmosphere and on the surface. These chemical species evolve with time. We performed an analysis of spectra acquired by Cassini/CIRS at high resolution which cover the far-IR range from 10 to 1500 cm-1 since the beginning and until the last year of the Cassini mission in 2017 and describe the temperature and composition variations near Titan’s poles and at the equator over almost two Titan seasons ([1-3]. By applying our radiative transfer code (ARTT) to CIRS data and to the 1980 Voyager 1 flyby values inferred from the re-analysis of the Infrared Radiometer Spectrometer (IRIS) spectra, as well as to the intervening ground- and space-based observations (such as with ISO), we study the stratospheric evolution over a Titanian year (V1 encounter Ls=9° was reached in mid-2010) [1,2]. CIRS nadir and limb spectral together show variations in temperature and chemical composition in the stratosphere during the Cassini mission, before and after the Northern Spring Equinox (NSE) and also during one Titan year.</p><p>After the 2010 equinox we have thus reported on monitoring of Titan’s stratosphere near the poles and in particular on the observed strong temperature decrease and compositional enhancement above Titan’s southern polar latitudes since 2012 and until 2014 of several trace species, such as complex hydrocarbons and nitriles, which were previously observed only at high northern latitudes. This effect followed the transition of Titan’s seasons from northern winter in 2002 to northern summer in 2017, while at that latter time the southern hemisphere was entering winter.</p><p>Our data show a continued decrease of the abundances which we first reported to have started in 2015. The 2017 data we have acquired and analyzed here are important because they are the only ones recorded since 2014 close to the south pole in the far-infrared nadir mode at high resolution. A large temperature increase in the southern polar stratosphere (by 10-50 K in the 0.5 mbar-0.05 mbar pressure range) is found and a change in the temperature profile’s shape. The 2017 observations also show a related significant decrease in most of the abundances which must have started sometime between 2014 and 2017 [3]. In our work, we show that the equatorial latitudes remain rather constant throughout the Cassini mission.</p><p>We have thus shown that the south pole of Titan is now losing its strong enhancement, while the north pole also slowly continues its decrease in gaseous opacities. It would have been interesting to see when this might happen, but the Cassini mission ended in September 2017. Perhaps future ground-based measurements can pursue this investigation and monitor Titan’s atmosphere to characterize the seasonal events. We have obtained thus significant results which set constraints on GCM and photochemical models.</p><p> [1] Coustenis et al., 2016, Icarus 270, 409-420; [2] Coustenis et al., 2018, Astroph. J., Lett., 854, no2; [3] Coustenis et al., 2019, Icarus in press, https://doi.org/10.​1016/​j.​icarus.​2019.​113413.</p>

scholarly journals Titan’s neutral atmosphere seasonal variations up to the end of the Cassini mission

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Athena Coustenis ◽  
Donald Jennings ◽  
Richard Achterberg ◽  
Panayotis Lavvas ◽  
Georgios Bampasidis ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
High Spectral Resolution ◽  
Large Temperature ◽  
Neutral Atmosphere ◽  
The North ◽  
Northern Summer ◽  
Trace Species ◽  
Northern Latitudes ◽  
Spring Equinox ◽  
Cassini Mission ◽  
Infrared Spectrometer

<p>In our recent publication [1] we reported new results concerning the seasonal atmospheric evolution near Titan’s poles and equator in terms of temperature and composition using nadir spectra acquired by the Cassini Composite Infrared Spectrometer (CIRS) at high spectral resolution during the last year of the Cassini mission in 2017 complementing previous investigations covering almost two Titan seasons. In previous papers [2,3], we reported on monitoring of Titan’s stratosphere near the poles after the mid-2009 northern spring equinox. In particular we have reported on the observed strong temperature decrease and compositional enhancement above Titan’s southern polar latitudes since 2012 and until 2014 of several trace species, such as complex hydrocarbons and nitriles, which were previously observed only at high northern latitudes. This effect accompanied the transition of Titan’s seasons from northern winter in 2002 to northern summer in 2017, while at that latter time, the southern hemisphere was entering winter. Our new data, acquired in 2017 and analyzed here, are important because they are the only ones recorded since 2014 close to the south pole in the mid-infrared nadir mode at high resolution. A large temperature increase in the southern polar stratosphere (by 10-50 K in the 0.1 to 0.01 mbar pressure range) is found associated with a change in the temperature profile’s shape. The 2017 observations also show a related significant decrease in most of the southern abundances which must have started sometime between 2014 and 2017 [1]. For the north, the spectra indicate a continuation of the decrease of the abundances which we first reported to have started in 2015 and small temperature variations [1]. We discuss comparisons with other results and with current photochemical and dynamical models which could be updated and improved by the new constraints set by the findings presented here.</p> <p>[1] Coustenis et al., 2019, Icarus 344, 1 July 2020, 113413 ; [2] Coustenis et al., 2016, Icarus 270, 409-420; [3] Coustenis et al., 2018, Astroph. J. Lett. 854, no2.</p>

Middle Bronze Age Long Distance Exchange through Europe and Beyond

2020 ◽  
Vol 26 (2) ◽  
pp. 266-274
Author(s):  
Flemming Kaul
Keyword(s):  
Chemical Composition ◽  
Bronze Age ◽  
Glass Beads ◽  
The South ◽  
Long Distance ◽  
Blue Glass ◽  
The North ◽  
Southern Scandinavia ◽  
Middle Bronze Age ◽  
The Mediterranean

Abstract The introduction of the folding stool and the single-edged razor into Southern Scandinavia, as well as the testimony of chariot use during the Nordic Bronze Age Period II (1500-1300 BC), give evidence of the transfer of ideas from the Mediterranean to the North. Recent analyses of the chemical composition of blue glass beads from well-dated Danish Bronze Age burials have revealed evidence for the opening of long distance exchange routes around 1400 BC between Egypt, Mesopotamia and South Scandinavia. When including comparative material from glass workshops in Egypt and finds of glass from Mesopotamia, it becomes clear that glass from those distant lands reached Scandinavia. The routes of exchange can be traced through Europe based on finds of amber from the North and glass from the South.

Zircon U–Pb geochronology of the Zanhuang metamorphic complex: reappraisal of the Palaeoproterozoic amalgamation of the Trans-North China Orogen

2013 ◽  
Vol 150 (4) ◽  
pp. 756-764 ◽  
Author(s):  
LING-LING XIAO ◽  
GUO-DONG WANG ◽  
HAO WANG ◽  
ZONG-SHENG JIANG ◽  
CHUN-RONG DIWU ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
High Resolution ◽  
North China Craton ◽  
North China ◽  
Metamorphic Complex ◽  
Middle Section ◽  
The South ◽  
The North ◽  
Facies Metamorphism ◽  
Isothermal Decompression ◽  
Metamorphic Terranes

AbstractAmphibolites and metapelites exposed in the Zanhuang metamorphic complex situated in the south-middle section of the Trans-North China Orogen (TNCO) underwent upper-amphibolite-facies metamorphism and record clockwise P–T paths including retrograde isothermal decompression. High-resolution zircon U–Pb geochronological analyses indicate that the metamorphic peak occurred during ~ 1840–1860 Ma, which is in accordance with the ubiquitous metamorphic ages of ~ 1850 Ma retrieved by miscellaneous geochronologic methods throughout the metamorphic terranes of the northern TNCO, confirming that the south-middle section of the TNCO was involved in the amalgamation of the Eastern and Western Blocks of the North China Craton during the Palaeoproterozoic.

Measurements of several atmospheric gases above the South Pole in December 1986 from high-resolution 3- to 4-μm solar spectra

1988 ◽  
Vol 93 (D6) ◽  
pp. 7069-7074 ◽  
Author(s):  
Aaron Goldman ◽  
Frank J. Murcray ◽  
Frank H. Murcray ◽  
David G. Murcray ◽  
Curtis P. Rinsland
Keyword(s):  
High Resolution ◽  
South Pole ◽  
Atmospheric Gases ◽  
The South

scholarly journals Research in Earth’s frozen wastelands

MRS Bulletin ◽  
2019 ◽  
Vol 44 (06) ◽  
pp. 434-435
Author(s):  
Eva Karatairi ◽  
Sabrina Sartori
Keyword(s):  
Snow Cover ◽  
Ground Temperature ◽  
South Pole ◽  
The South ◽  
Seasonal Snow ◽  
The North ◽  
Solid Water ◽  
Permafrost Thawing ◽  
Seasonal Snow Cover

Earth’s cryosphere is shrinking. The cryosphere is the frozen part of our planet that is covered by solid water and where ground temperature remains below 0°C for at least some part of the year. From the North to the South Pole, as well as on the highest altitudes, scientists have recently observed the seasonal snow cover decreasing, the permafrost thawing, and the ice retreating.

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