Blowing in the wind: Cassini helps with dune whodunit on Saturn's moon Titan

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ScienceDaily (July 31, 2010) — The reply to the mystery of dune patterns on Saturn's moon Titan did twist out to be amazing in the wind. It now wasn't as of the way a lot of group expected.

Basic principles telling the rotation of planetary atmospheres and information as of the European Space Agency's Huygens probe led to circulation heavy so as to divide surface winds streaming usually east-to-west approximately Titan's equatorial belt. But at what time NASA's Cassini spacecraft obtained the primary images of dunes on Titan in 2005, the dunes' orientation suggested the sands -- and so,consequently the winds -- now moving as of the conflicting direction, or west to east.

A new document by Tetsuya Tokano in press by means of the periodical Aeolian Research seeks to provide details the paradox. It trial so as to seasonal profits approach eager on view to overturn wind patterns on Titan for a small period. These gusts, construct occur intermittently for maybe two years, sweep west to east and are so physically powerful contain do a improved job of transporting sand supposed the customary east-to-west surface winds. Those east-to-west winds do not approach eager on view to meet sufficient power to go,shift important inadequate of sand.

A connected perspective part of writing concerning Tokano's labor by Cassini radar scientist Ralph Lorenz, the guide author on a 2009 document mapping the dunes, appears in the periodical Science.

"It was firm to consider so as to present counting be permanent west-to-east winds, as suggested by the dune appearance," supposed Tokano, of the University of Cologne, Germany. "The dramatic, monsoon-type wind reversal approximately equinox turns out to be the key."

The dunes path crossways the huge sand seas of Titan merely in latitudes inside 30 degrees of the equator. They are concerning a kilometer (half a mile) broad and tens to legally responsible of kilometers (miles) long. They can go up additional supposed 100 meters (300 feet) high. The sands so as to create up the dunes approach eager on view to be complete of organic, hydrocarbon particles. The dunes' ridges usually run west-to-east, as wind at petroleum time usually sheds sand the distance end to end of lines parallel to the equator.

Scientists predicted winds in the low latitudes approximately Titan's equator counting gust east-to-west since at senior latitudes the standard wind blows west-to-east. The wind armed forces be hypothetical to equilibrium out, feature on essential principles of rotating atmospheres.

Tokano re-analyzed a computer-based worldwide circulation replica for Titan he put jointly in 2008. That model, similar to route for Titan, was adapted as of appreciated urbanized for Earth and Mars. Tokano additional in new information on Titan topography and form feature on Cassini radar and gravity data. In his new analysis, Tokano too looked additional closely at variations in the wind at dissimilar mark in occasion rather supposed the averages. Equinox emotion jumped out.

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Equinoxes occur twice a Titan year, construct is concerning 29 Earth years. During equinox, the sun shines directly in excess of the equator, and warmth as of the sun creates upwelling in the atmosphere. The turbulent mixing causes the winds to overturn and accelerate. On Earth, petroleum rare type of wind reversal usual in excess of the Indian Ocean in transitional seasons recognized by monsoons.

The episodic overturn winds on Titan approach eager on view to gust approximately 1 to 1.8 meters per next (2 to 4 mph). The doorsill for sand movement appears to be concerning 1 gauge per next (2 mph), a pace so as to the characteristic east-to-west winds by no means approach eager on view to surpass. Dune patterns sculpted by strong, small episodes of wind can be establish on Earth in the extremely old Namib sand seas in Namibia, Africa.

"This is a subtle discovery -- merely by delving eager on the statistics of the winds in the replica might petroleum rather upsetting paradox be resolved," supposed Ralph Lorenz, a Cassini radar scientist feature at the Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory in Laurel, Md. "This labor is too reassuring for preparations for proposed prospect missions to Titan, in so as to we can twist out to be additional sure in predicting the winds construct can contain an result on the delivery accuracy of landers, or the drift of balloons."

The Cassini-Huygens mission is a cooperative project of NASA, the European Space Agency and the Italian Space Agency. JPL manages the Cassini-Huygens mission for NASA's Science Mission Directorate. The Cassini orbiter was designed, urbanized and assembled at JPL. The radar instrument was liberally by JPL and the Italian Space Agency, operational by means of side talk to as of the United States and more supposed a few European countries. JPL is a separation of the California Institute of Technology in Pasadena.

More Cassini in order is available, at http://www.nasa.gov/cassini and http://saturn.jpl.nasa.gov.

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The on top of tale is reprinted (with leader adaptations by ScienceDaily staff) as of resources ,advertising by NASA/Jet Propulsion Laboratory.

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Journal References:

1. Tetsuya Tokano. Relevance of quick westerlies at equinox for the eastward elongation of Titan's dunes. Aeolian Research, 2010; DOI: 10.1016/j.aeolia.2010.04.003
2. Ralph D. Lorenz. Winds of Change on Titan. Science, 2010; DOI: 10.1126/science.1192840

Note: If no author is given, the basis is cited instead.

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