Convective plumes and the scarcity of Titan's clouds
Lorenz, Ralph D.; McKay, Christopher P.; Griffith, Caitlin A.; Lunine, Jonathan I.; Rennò, Nilton O.
United States
Abstract
We show that simple thermodynamic models of convective plumes predict the area fraction of convective plumes (i.e., updrafts) in Titan's atmosphere to be ~12 smaller than on Earth. This result is in agreement with predictions by sophisticated dynamical models and with the relative tropospheric cloud cover, which is only ~1% on Titan. Rainstorms on Titan, being so rare, may be violent.