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[17.02] Spatially Resolved Spectroscopy of Titan's Surface and Atmosphere

A.H. Bouchez, M.E. Brown (Caltech), C.A. Griffith (Northern Arizona University), R.G. Dekany (NASA-JPL)

Spatially resolved near-infrared spectra of both the leading and trailing hemispheres of Titan were acquired with the Palomar 200-inch telescope and adaptive optics system in September~1999 and July~2000. Radiative transfer modeling of these observations allows us to map Titan's high altitude haze, methane clouds, and surface albedo. At 2.05~\mum wavelength, the stratospheric haze optical depth varies from 0.04 in the northern mid-latitudes to 0.20 above the south pole. South polar hazes also extend lower in Titan's atmosphere, to 25~km above the surface. No optically thick methane clouds are detected at the ~00~km spatial resolution achieved by these observations. The 2.05~\mum surface albedo at mid to low latitudes is found to vary locally from 0.07 to 0.15, and be near 0.15 in the high southern latitudes. We will present maps of the haze distribution and surface albedo.

The author(s) of this abstract have provided an email address for comments about the abstract: antonin@gps.caltech.edu