Characterization of Aerosols in the Detached Haze Layer of Titan

✍ Scribed by P. Rannou; C. Ferrari; K. Rages; M. Roos-Serote; M. Cabane

• Publisher: Elsevier Science
• Year: 2000
• Tongue: English
• Weight: 230 KB
• Volume: 147
• Category: Article
• ISSN: 0019-1035
• DOI: 10.1006/icar.2000.6416

✦ Synopsis

The aim of this work is to deduce physical characteristics of the aerosols that compose the thin detached haze layer of Titan, for which the composition and origin are currently unknown. We have used four images at three different phase angles and three different wavelengths where the detached haze clearly appears. The low optical path in the layer permits assumptions that greatly simplify the treatment and allow us to consider the scattered intensity as the product of the scattering cross section, the phase function at the considered phase angle, and the number of aerosols. Physical arguments are given to support fractal aerosols in the detached haze, and we investigate a wide range of monomer radii, monomer numbers, and imaginary refractive indexes. This study yields information about the spectral variation of the refractive index for the detached haze tholins that are clearly different from those for the main haze. On the other hand, no firm values are given for the monomer radius and number, but these two parameters are strongly linked through a simple relation.