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Titan's Topography and Shape at the End of the Cassini Mission

Hayes, A. G.; Iess, L.; Stiles, B. W. +6 more

With the conclusion of the Cassini mission, we present an updated topographic map of Titan, including all the available altimetry, SARtopo, and stereophotogrammetry topographic data sets available from the mission. We use radial basis functions to interpolate the sparse data set, which covers only ∼9% of Titan's global area. The most notable updat…

Topographic Constraints on the Evolution and Connectivity of Titan's Lacustrine Basins

Lorenz, R. D.; Hayes, A. G.; Kirk, R. L. +11 more

The topography provided by altimetry, synthetic aperture radar-topography, and stereo radargrammetry has opened new doors for Titan research by allowing for quantitative analysis of morphologic form. Using altimetry measurements, we show that Titan's Maria are consistent with an equipotential surface but that several filled lakes are found to be h…

Investigation of diurnal variability of water vapor in Enceladus' plume by the Cassini ultraviolet imaging spectrograph

Hansen, C. J.; Hendrix, A. R.; Portyankina, G. +4 more

An occultation of ɛ Orionis by Enceladus' plume was observed with Enceladus at an orbital longitude near apoapsis in order to investigate whether water vapor flow is modulated diurnally, similar to ice particles. The occultation showed that the bulk water vapor emanating from Enceladus changes little with orbital position. The amount of gas in at …

Redetection of the Ionospheric H3+ Signature of Saturn's "Ring Rain"

Baines, Kevin H.; O'Donoghue, James; Moore, Luke +4 more

In April 2011 Saturn's midlatitude ionospheric H3+ emissions were detected, exhibiting anomalous (nonsolar) H3+ latitudinal variations consistent with the transport of water from specific locations in Saturn's rings, known as "ring rain". These products, transported to the planet along the magnetic field, may help to explain the unusual pattern of…

Cassini UVIS observations of Titan ultraviolet airglow intensity dependence with solar zenith angle

West, R. A.; Esposito, L. W.; Royer, E. M. +3 more

The Cassini Ultraviolet Imaging Spectrometer (UVIS) observed the airglow (dayglow and nightglow) of Titan over a range of solar zenith angles (SZA) from 14 to 150° on five separate observations obtained between 2008 and 2012. The modeling of the solar cycle normalized UVIS observations indicates that a Chapman layer function provides a satisfactor…