A new analysis of the ESO Very Large Telescope (VLT) observations of Titan at 2 mu m

作者：Cours T^*; Rannou P; Coustenis A; Hamdouni A

来源：Planetary and Space Science, 2010, 58(13): 1708-1714.

DOI：10.1016/j.pss.2009.12.009

• Titan
• Atmosphere
• Radiative transfer
• Column opacity
• Surface albedo
• Haze and mist

We have performed an analysis of ESO Very Large Telescope (VLT) observations of Titan at 2 mu m The data were acquired with the Nasmyth Adaptative Optics System Near-Infrared Imager and Spectrograph (NAOS/CONICA) on the 16th of January 2005 that is 2 days after the landing of the Huygens probe (Hirtzig et al 2007) The data consist in 21 spectra taken along two diameters of Titan s disk at wavelengths between 2 03 and 2 5 mu m This range covers a part of the 2 mu m methane window and the adjacent band The data received a preliminary analysis in a recent paper (Negrao et al 2007) essentially focused on the surface albedo near Huygens landing site In this work we perform an in-depth analysis to retrieve information about several aspects the latitude haze distribution in the stratosphere and in the low atmosphere the latitudinal variation of the surface albedo and its spectral behaviour Also this analysis allowed us to make sensitivity tests on the influence of the scatterer profiles on the retrieved surface albedo and its spectral slope The news analysis confirms that as was the case with VIMS observations at the same epoch the Northern (currently winter) Hemisphere contains more haze than the southern one (Summer Hemisphere) The sensitivity tests show tha

• 出版日期2010-11