Using Solar Occultation to Determine Titan's Atmospheric and Surface Composition

Titan’s Surface Composition and Atmospheric Transmission with Solar Occultation Measurements by Cassini VIMS

Authors:

Hayne et al

Abstract:

Solar occultation measurements by the Cassini Visual and Infrared Mapping Spectrometer (VIMS) reveal the near-infrared transmission of Titan’s atmosphere down to an altitude of ∼40 km. By combining these observations with VIMS reflectance measurements of Titan’s surface and knowledge of haze and gas opacity profiles from the Huygens probe, we constrain a simple model for the transfer of radiation in Titan’s atmosphere in order to derive surface reflectance in the methane windows used for compositional analysis. The advantages of this model are twofold: 1) it is accurate enough to yield useful results, yet simple enough to be implemented in just a few lines of code, and 2) the model parameters are directly constrained by the VIMS occultation and on-planet measurements. We focus on the 2.0, 2.7, 2.8 and 5.0 μm windows, where haze opacity is minimized, and diagnostic vibrational bands exist for water ice and other candidate surface species. A particularly important result is the strong atmospheric attenuation at 2.7 μm compared to 2.8 μm, resulting in a reversal of apparent spectral slope in a compositionally diagnostic wavelength range. These results show that Titan’s surface reflectance is much “bluer” and more closely matched by water ice than the uncorrected spectra would indicate, although the majority of Titan’s surface has a spectrum consistent with mixtures (either intimate or areal) of water ice and haze particles precipitated from the atmosphere. Compositions of geologic units can be accurately modeled as mixtures ranging from predominantly water ice (Sinlap crater ejecta and margins of dark equatorial terrain) to predominantly organic-rich (Tui Regio and Hotei Regio), with particles in the size range ∼10 – 20 μm. In distinguishing between hypothesized formation mechanisms for Tui and Hotei Regio, their organic-rich composition favors a process that concentrates precipitated haze particles, such as playa lake evaporite deposition (Barnes et al., 2011). In other places, kilometer-scale exposures of nearly pure water ice bedrock on Titan’s surface indicate relatively locally rapid erosion compared to rates of accumulation of solid hydrocarbons precipitated from the atmosphere. Somewhat surprisingly, Titan’s vast equatorial dune fields appear slightly enriched in water ice compared to the surrounding bright regions, but the spectrum of the dune material itself may nonetheless be consistent with a predominantly organic haze-derived composition.