D. Snowden

Aerosol growth in Titan’s ionosphere

Photochemically produced aerosols are common among the atmospheres of our solar system and beyond. Observations and models have shown that photochemical aerosols have direct consequences on atmospheric properties as well as important astrobiological ramifications, but the mechanisms involved in their formation remain unclear. Here we show that the formation of aerosols in Titan’s upper atmosphere is directly related to ion processes, and we provide a complete interpretation of observed mass spectra by the Cassini instruments from small to large masses. Because all planetary atmospheres possess ionospheres, we anticipate that the mechanisms identified here will be efficient in other environments as well, modulated by the chemical complexity of each atmosphere.

Density waves in Titan's upper atmosphere

Analysis of the Cassini Ion Neutral Mass Spectrometer data reveals the omnipresence of density waves in various constituents of Titans upper atmosphere, with quasi-periodical structures visible for N2, CH4,29N2, and some of the minor constituents. The N2 amplitude lies in the range of ≈4%–16%with a mean of ≈8%. Compositional variation is clearly seen as a sequence of decreasing amplitude with increasing scale height. The observed vertical variation of amplitude implies significant wave dissipation in different constituents, possibly contributed by molecular viscosity for N2but by both molecular viscosity and binary diffusion for the others. A wave train with near horizontally propagating wave energy and characterized by a wavelength of ≈730 km and a wave period of ≈10 h is found to best reproduce various aspects of the observations in a globally averaged sense. Some horizontal and seasonal trends in wave activity are identified, suggesting a connection between the mechanism driving the overall variability in the background atmosphere and the mechanism driving the waves. No clear association of wave activity with magnetospheric particle precipitation can be identified from the data.

Suprathermal electrons in Titan's sunlit ionosphere: model-observation comparisons

The dayside ionosphere of the Saturnian satellite Titan is generated mainly from photoionization of N-2 and CH4. We compare model-derived suprathermal electron intensities with spectra measured by the Cassini Plasma Spectrometer/Electron Spectrometer (CAPS/ELS) in Titans sunlit ionosphere (altitudes of 970-1250 km) focusing on the T40, T41, T42, and T48 Titan flybys by the Cassini spacecraft. The model accounts only for photoelectrons and associated secondary electrons, with a main input being the impinging solar EUV spectra as measured by the Thermosphere Ionosphere Mesosphere Energy and Dynamics/Solar EUV Experiment and extrapolated to Saturn. Associated electron-impact electron production rates have been derived from ambient number densities of N-2 and CH4 (measured by the Ion Neutral Mass Spectrometer/Closed Source Neutral mode) and related energy-dependent electron-impact ionization cross sections. When integrating up to electron energies of 60 eV, covering the bulk of the photoelectrons, the model-based values exceed the observationally based values typically by factors of similar to 3 +/- 1. This finding is possibly related to current difficulties in accurately reproducing the observed electron number densities in Titans dayside ionosphere. We compare the utilized dayside CAPS/ELS spectra with ones measured in Titans nightside ionosphere during the T55-T59 flybys. The investigated nightside locations were associated with higher fluxes of high-energy (>100 eV) electrons than the dayside locations. As expected, for similar neutral number densities, electrons with energies <60 eV give a higher relative contribution to the total electron-impact ionization rates on the dayside (due to the contribution from photoelectrons) than on the nightside.