Near-IR Spectral Features of Haze Particles in the Atmosphere of Titan

  • Published : 2013.04.11

Abstract

The Cassini/Visual Infrared Mapping Spectrometer (VIMS) observed the sun through the atmosphere of Titan, and provided vertically-resolved 63 spectra from 49 km to 987 km for the 1 - 5 micron range (Bellucci, 2008). Bellucci et al. (2009) analyzed selected spectral ranges where the band absorptions of $CH_4$ and CO are strong by constructing synthetic spectra including $CH_4$ and CO lines, but without including haze absorptions in their synthetic spectra. Kim et al. (2011) and Sim et al. (2013) were able to extract detailed spectral features of fundamental (Dv = 1) and overtone (Dv = 2) bands of the haze from the VIMS spectra by excluding the adjacent influences of strong $CH_4$ absorptions using a radiative transfer program, which includes effects of absorption and emission of lines of these molecules, and absorption and scattering of haze particles. In this presentation, we extend our detailed analyses to other remaining wavelengths in order to provide the spectral characteristics of the Titanian haze for the entire 1 - 5 micron range and to identify any additional haze spectral features and an unidentified feature near 4.3 microns reported by Bellucci et al. (2009).

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