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ReportsTitan's Atmospheric Temperatures, Winds, and Composition
Temperatures obtained from early Cassini infrared observations of Titan show a stratopause at an altitude of 310 kilometers (and 186 kelvin at 15°S). Stratospheric temperatures are coldest in the winter northern hemisphere, with zonal winds reaching 160 meters per second. The concentrations of several stratospheric organic compounds are enhanced at mid- and high northern latitudes, and the strong zonal winds may inhibit mixing between these latitudes and the rest of Titan. Above the south pole, temperatures in the stratosphere are 4 to 5 kelvin cooler than at the equator. The stratospheric mole fractions of methane and carbon monoxide are (1.6 ± 0.5) x 10-2 and (4.5 ± 1.5) x 10-5, respectively.
1 NASA/Goddard Space Flight Center, Code 693, Greenbelt, MD 20771, USA.
2 Science Systems and Applications, 5900 Princess Garden Parkway, Suite 300, Lanham, MD 20706, USA. 3 Department of Astronomy, Cornell University, Ithaca, NY 14853, USA. 4 Department of Astronomy, University of Maryland, College Park, MD 20742, USA. 5 Laboratoire d'Études Spatiales et d'Instrumentation en Astrophysique (LESIA), CNRS–Unité Mixte de Recherche (UMR) 8109, Observatoire de Paris, 5 place Jules Janssen, F-91925 Meudon Cedex, France. 6 Atmospheric, Oceanic, and Planetary Physics, Clarendon Laboratory, Parks Road, University of Oxford, Oxford OX1 3PU, UK. 7 QSS Group, 4500 Forbes Boulevard, Suite 200, Lanham, MD 20706, USA. 8 Department of Earth and Planetary Science, Johns Hopkins University, Baltimore, MD 21218, USA. 9 Jet Propulsion Laboratory, 4800 Oak Grove Drive, Pasadena, CA 91109, USA. 10 University of Hawaii, Institute of Astronomy, 2680 Woodlawn Drive, Honolulu, HI 96822, USA. 11 Department of Space Studies, Southwest Research Institute, 1050 Walnut Street, Suite 400, Boulder, CO 80302, USA. 12 Search for Extraterrestrial Intelligence (SETI) Institute, 515 North Whisman Road, Mountain View, CA 94043, USA. 13 Commissariat de l'Énergie Atomique, Saclay, Service d'Astrophysique, 91191 Gif-sur-Yvette Cedex, France. 14 NASA/Marshall Space Flight Center, SD50 NSSTC, Huntsville, AL 35812, USA. 15 Laboratoire Interuniversitaire des Systèmes Atmosphériques, Université de Paris 7 and 12, CNRS-UMR 7583, 61 Avenue General de Gaulle, 94010 Creteil Cedex, France. 16 Department of Physics and Astronomy, University of Cardiff, 5 The Parade, Cardiff CF24 3YB, UK. 17 Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory and Space Sciences Laboratory, University of California, Berkeley, L-041, Livermore, CA 94551, USA.
* To whom correspondence should be addressed. E-mail: f.m.flasar{at}nasa.gov
The editors suggest the following Related Resources on Science sites:In Science Magazine
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Present address: LESIA, CNRS-UMR 8109, Observatoire de Paris, 5 place Jules Janssen, F-91925 Meudon Cedex, France. Science. ISSN 0036-8075 (print), 1095-9203 (online)
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