The formation and evolution of Titan’s winter polar vortex

Nicholas A. Teanby (), Bruno Bézard, Sandrine Vinatier, Melody Sylvestre, Conor A. Nixon, Patrick G. J. Irwin, Remco J. Kok, Simon B. Calcutt and F. Michael Flasar
Additional contact information
Nicholas A. Teanby: School of Earth Sciences, University of Bristol
Bruno Bézard: LESIA-Observatoire de Paris, PSL Research University, CNRS, Sorbonne Universités, UPMC Univ. Paris 06, Univ. Paris-Diderot
Sandrine Vinatier: LESIA-Observatoire de Paris, PSL Research University, CNRS, Sorbonne Universités, UPMC Univ. Paris 06, Univ. Paris-Diderot
Melody Sylvestre: School of Earth Sciences, University of Bristol
Conor A. Nixon: Planetary Systems Laboratory, NASA Goddard Space Flight Center
Patrick G. J. Irwin: University of Oxford, Clarendon Laboratory
Remco J. Kok: Universiteit Utrecht
Simon B. Calcutt: University of Oxford, Clarendon Laboratory
F. Michael Flasar: Planetary Systems Laboratory, NASA Goddard Space Flight Center

Nature Communications, 2017, vol. 8, issue 1, 1-13

Abstract: Abstract Saturn’s largest moon Titan has a substantial nitrogen-methane atmosphere, with strong seasonal effects, including formation of winter polar vortices. Following Titan’s 2009 northern spring equinox, peak solar heating moved to the northern hemisphere, initiating south-polar subsidence and winter polar vortex formation. Throughout 2010–2011, strengthening subsidence produced a mesospheric hot-spot and caused extreme enrichment of photochemically produced trace gases. However, in 2012 unexpected and rapid mesospheric cooling was observed. Here we show extreme trace gas enrichment within the polar vortex dramatically increases mesospheric long-wave radiative cooling efficiency, causing unusually cold temperatures 2–6 years post-equinox. The long time-frame to reach a stable vortex configuration results from the high infrared opacity of Titan’s trace gases and the relatively long atmospheric radiative time constant. Winter polar hot-spots have been observed on other planets, but detection of post-equinox cooling is so far unique to Titan.

Date: 2017
References: Add references at CitEc
Citations:

Downloads: (external link)
https://www.nature.com/articles/s41467-017-01839-z Abstract (text/html)

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:nat:natcom:v:8:y:2017:i:1:d:10.1038_s41467-017-01839-z

Ordering information: This journal article can be ordered from
https://www.nature.com/ncomms/

DOI: 10.1038/s41467-017-01839-z

Access Statistics for this article

Nature Communications is currently edited by Nathalie Le Bot, Enda Bergin and Fiona Gillespie

More articles in Nature Communications from Nature
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Sonal Shukla () and Springer Nature Abstracting and Indexing ().