Titan’s North–South Haze Asymmetry Ratio and Boundary at Visible Wavelengths over the Cassini Mission

Abstract

We document the evolution of the north–south asymmetry (NSA) of Titan’s haze albedo during the Cassini mission between 2004 and 2017. We analyze coadded cube images taken at 96 distinct wavelengths between 0.35 and 1.05 μ m by the Cassini Visual and Infrared Mapping Spectrometer (VIMS-V) instrument from 14 Titan flybys. Over half of a Titan year, we observe a near-complete transition in the NSA boundary latitude across the geographic equator from the southern to the northern hemisphere, including a 3 yr fading of the boundary for several years after the equinox. The fading transition of the NSA matches previous observations of a reversal of the NSA in Hubble Space Telescope images of Titan before the winter solstice between 1997 and 2000. A comparison of NSA images taken at similar times but different phase angles shows the NSA boundary is detectable, albeit with less contrast, at moderately high phase angles (∼90°). Analysis of the NSA boundary in T61 and T67 VIMS images further supports a small tilt between the superrotating atmosphere and the solid body of Titan, as suggested in a previous analysis of 0.890 μ m images from the Cassini Imaging Science Subsystem.

Keywords

• Astronomy data modeling
• Astronomy image processing
• Titan
• Atmospheric evolution
• Atmospheric dynamics
• Albedo