NSF Award
2307894
Titan, the largest moon of Saturn, is unlike any other moon in the solar system. A thick hazy atmosphere enshrouds the moon and affects the composition of Titan's lakes and erosion of the surface. The project will model the seasonal abundance and distribution of this unique haze in order to understand the physical processes that drive the circulation of the atmosphere. This project will engage the broader community through the development of user-friendly GUIs that will introduce current graduate and undergraduate students to the complex physical processes behind radiative transfer codes. This work will stimulate a unique partnership between academia and industry that will enhance the scientific return of atmospheric models essential to the planetary community. <br/><br/>Understanding the global distribution and properties of Titan’s hazes is paramount for revealing the critical roles hazes play in global circulation, radiative balance and atmospheric chemistry. To date, it has been difficult to constrain the circulation and distribution of aerosols due to the inability of current radiation transfer codes to accurately model the complex absorption and scattering effects in the atmosphere. This program will explore the seasonal and dynamical connections between Titan’s upper and lower atmospheres. The project will expand two principal radiative transfer codes to incorporate newly available methane line lists. The team will also improve the numerical treatment of atmospheric radiative-transfer equations to accurately model scattering, absorption, and emission in vertically inhomogeneous, non-isothermal, plane-parallel layers. The team will validate the models using a combination of ground and space-based observations of the Huygens landing site and will produce the first maps of the distribution of haze in Titan’s troposphere. The development of accurate radiative transfer codes is of vital importance to not only the Titan community but also for the (exo)planetary communities.<br/><br/>This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.
