Related papers: Quantitative estimates of chemical disequilibrium …
In this article I summarize the current state of knowledge about the composition of Titan's atmosphere, and our current understanding of the suggested chemistry that leads to that observed composition. I begin with our present knowledge of…
Titan's atmospheric composition and dynamical state have previously been studied over numerous epochs by both ground- and space-based facilities. However, stratospheric measurements remain sparse during Titan's northern summer and fall. The…
Previous investigations have employed more than 100 close observations of Titan by the Cassini orbiter to elucidate connections between the production and distribution of Titan's vast, organic-rich chemical inventory and its atmospheric…
Titan is the only moon with a substantial atmosphere, the only other thick N$_{2}$ atmosphere besides Earth's, the site of extraordinarily complex atmospheric chemistry that far surpasses any other solar system atmosphere, and the only…
Titan has a climate system with similarities to Earth, including the presence of a thick atmosphere made up of several atmospheric layers. As on Earth, Titan's climate is influenced by several factors: the gaseous species making up the…
Between 2004 and 2007 the instruments of the CASSINI spacecraft discovered hydrocarbon lakes in the polar regions of Titan. We have developed a lake-atmosphere equilibrium model allowing the determination of the chemical composition of…
We present results of an investigation into the formation of nitrogen-bearing molecules in the atmosphere of Titan. We extend a previous model (Li et al. 2015, 2016) to cover the region below the tropopause, so the new model treats the…
The organic haze produced from complex CH4/N2 chemistry in the atmosphere of Titan plays an important role in processes that occur in the atmosphere and on its surface. The haze particles act as condensation nuclei and are therefore…
The temperature structure of Titan's upper atmosphere exhibits large variability resulting from numerous spatially and temporally irregular external energy sources, seasonal changes, and the influence of molecular species produced via…
Chemical disequilibrium in exoplanetary atmospheres (detectable with remote spectroscopy) can indicate life. The modern Earth's atmosphere-ocean system has a much larger chemical disequilibrium than other solar system planets with…
The Cassini/Composite InfraRed Spectrometer (CIRS) instrument has been observing the middle atmosphere of Titan over almost half a Saturnian year. We used the CIRS dataset processed through the up-to-date calibration pipeline to…
Cassini's observations of Titan's atmosphere are exemplary benchmarks for exoplanet atmospheric studies owing to (1) their precision and (2) our independent knowledge of Titan. Leveraging these observations, we perform retrievals (i.e.,…
Chemistry in Titan's N2-CH4 atmosphere produces complex organic aerosols. The chemical processes and the resulting organic compounds are still far from understood, although extensive observations, laboratory, and theoretical simulations…
Titan harbors a dense, organic-rich atmosphere primarily composed of N$_2$ and CH$_4$, with lesser amounts of hydrocarbons and nitrogen-bearing species. As a result of high sensitivity observations by the Atacama Large…
Seasonal variation is significant in Titan's atmosphere due to the large change of solar insolation resulting from Titan's 26.7{\deg} axial tilt relative to the plane of Saturn's orbit. Here we present an investigation of hydrocarbon and…
Submillimeter emission lines of carbon monoxide (CO) in Titan's atmosphere provide excellent probes of atmospheric temperature due to the molecule's long chemical lifetime and stable, well constrained volume mixing ratio. Here we present…
The details of the Solar system's formation are still heavily debated. Questions remain about the formation locations of the giant planets, and the degree to which volatile material was mixed throughout the proto-planetary system. One…
The longevity of Cassini's exploration of Saturn's atmosphere (a third of a Saturnian year) means that we have been able to track the seasonal evolution of atmospheric temperatures, chemistry and cloud opacity over almost every season, from…
Simulations of Titan's atmospheric transmission and surface reflectivity have been developed in order to estimate how Titan's atmosphere and surface properties could affect performances of the Cassini radar experiment. In this paper we…
Cassini-Huygens data are used to re-examine the potential sources of the D/H enhancement over solar, measured in methane, in Titan's atmosphere. Assuming that the system is closed with respect to carbon, the use of constraints from the…