Modelling the climate in Titan’s lake regions
Résumé
Titan interestingly has many similarities with the Earth. It has a thick atmosphere, made mostly of dinitrogen, and a surface pressure of 1.5 bar. It also hosts a hydrological cycle similar to the water cycle on Earth, but based on methane. We then observe similar landscapes and weather processes as on Earth: clouds, rain, rivers, lakes, seas (Hayes, 2016, Ann Rev EPS; Turtle et al., 2018, GRL)… Although we gathered many observations of Titan with the Cassini-Huygens mission, the conditions at its surface are still mostly a mystery. How strong are the winds? What are the variations of the surface methane humidity? How frequent are clouds? What is their distribution in size? How frequent is rain? The NASA Dragonfly mission will have many meteorological sensors to probe the weather on Titan in the mid 2030s (Barnes et al., 2021, PSJ). Nevertheless, we need to have sounded expectations of the surface conditions, lower troposphere properties and relevant processes to prepare the drone and its instruments.
Domaines
Planète et Univers [physics]| Origine | Fichiers produits par l'(les) auteur(s) |
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