Titan's Atmosphere in the Pre-Cassini Decade: Establishing Long-Term Behavior from HST and Ground-Based/AO Observations

卡西尼号之前十年的土卫六大气层：根据 HST 和地面/AO 观测建立长期行为

• 批准号: 0206390
• 负责人: Eliot Young
• 金额: $ 18万
• 依托单位: Southwest Research Institute
• 依托单位国家: 美国
• 项目类别: Standard Grant
• 财政年份: 2002
• 资助国家: 美国
• 起止时间: 2002-10-01 至 2006-09-30
• 项目状态: 已结题
• 来源: https://www.nsf.gov/awardsearch/showAward?AWD_ID=0206390&HistoricalAwards=false
• 关键词: Titan; Atmosphere; Pre; Cassini; Decade

AST 0206390YoungThe primary goal of Dr. Eliot Young's research project is to map Titan's evolving haze and methane distributions, a task for which the Hubble Space Telescope (HST) observations of the past decade are well suited. A second goal is to determine the separate methane and haze distributions in Titan's atmosphere, for which Dr. Young will use a synergistic combination of CCD-wavelength HST and near-IR ground-based images. This goal addresses the questions of cloud formation and methane'sapparent supersaturation in Titan's troposphere. In a similar vein, Dr. Young will also use microphysical models of ethane cloud formation to interpret the vertical haze and methane profiles that will be extracted from HST and Keck adaptive optics images. A long baseline of spatially resolved imaging will directly address the questions of how Titan'satmosphere undergoes seasonal changes. The results of this project will provide a valuable context for the upcoming Cassini and Huygens spacecraft missions; observational tests for existing models of cloud and haze formation and transport; and observational evidence for the evolving conditions in Titan's troposphere, especially with respect to the supersaturation of methane, the conditions for convection, and the conditions for cloud formation.***

AST 0206390 Young艾略特杨博士研究项目的主要目标是绘制土卫六不断变化的烟雾和甲烷分布图，哈勃太空望远镜（HST）在过去十年的观测非常适合这项任务。第二个目标是确定土卫六大气中单独的甲烷和烟雾分布，为此，Young博士将使用CCD波长HST和近红外地面图像的协同组合。这个目标解决了土卫六对流层中云的形成和甲烷的明显过饱和的问题。同样，Young博士还将使用乙烷云形成的微物理模型来解释将从HST和Keck自适应光学图像中提取的垂直烟雾和甲烷分布。 空间分辨成像的长基线将直接解决土卫六大气如何经历季节变化的问题。 该项目的结果将为即将进行的卡西尼号和惠更斯号航天器飞行任务提供有价值的背景资料;对现有云和烟雾形成和运输模型的观测测试;以及土卫六对流层不断变化的条件的观测证据，特别是甲烷的过饱和度、对流条件和云形成条件。