Solar system

Abstract:

We present zonal and meridional wind measurements at three altitude levels within the cloud layers of Venus from cloud tracking using images taken with the VIRTIS instrument on board Venus Express. At low latitudes, zonal winds in the Southern hemisphere are nearly constant with latitude with westward velocities of 105 ms-1 at cloud-tops (altitude ∼ 66 km) and 60-70 ms-1 at the cloud-base (altitude ∼ 47 km). At high latitudes, zonal wind speeds decrease linearly with latitude with no detectable vertical wind shear (values lower than 15 ms-1), indicating the possibility of a vertically coherent vortex structure. Meridional winds at the cloud-tops are poleward with peak speed of 10 ms-1 at 55° S but below the cloud tops and averaged over the South hemisphere are found to be smaller than 5 ms-1. We also, report the detection at subpolar latitudes of wind variability due to the solar tide. Copyright 2008 by the American Geophysical Union.

Abstract:

We have analyzed infrared spectra of Titan recorded by the Cassini Composite Infrared Spectrometer (CIRS) to measure the isotopic ratio 12C/13C in each of three chemical species in Titan's stratosphere: CH4, C2H2 and C2H6. This is the first measurement of 12C/13C in any C2 molecule on Titan, and the first measurement of 12CH4/13CH4 (non-deuterated) on Titan by remote sensing. Our spectra cover five widely-spaced latitudes, 65° S to 71° N and we have searched for both latitude variability of 12C/13C within a given species, and also for differences between the 12C/13C in the three gases. For CH4 alone, we find 12C / 13C = 76.6 ± 2.7 (1-σ), essentially in agreement with the 12CH4/13CH4 measured by the Huygens Gas Chromatograph/Mass Spectrometer instrument (GCMS) [Niemann, H.B., and 17 colleagues, 2005. Nature 438, 779-784]: 82.3 ± 1.0, and also with measured values in H13CN and 13CH3D by CIRS at lower precision [Bézard, B., Nixon, C., Kleiner, I., Jennings, D., 2007. Icarus 191, 397-400; Vinatier, S., Bézard, B., Nixon, C., 2007. Icarus 191, 712-721]. For the C2 species, we find 12C / 13C = 84.8 ± 3.2 in C2H2 and 89.8 ± 7.3 in C2H6, a possible trend of increasingly value with molecular mass, although these values are both compatible with the Huygens GCMS value to within error bars. There are no convincing trends in latitude. Combining all fifteen measurements, we obtain a value of 12C / 13C = 80.8 ± 2.0, also compatible with GCMS. Therefore, the evidence is mounting that 12C/13C is some 8% lower on Titan than on the Earth (88.9, inorganic standard), and lower than typical for the outer planets (88 ± 7 [Sada, P.V., McCabe, G.H., Bjoraker, G.L., Jennings, D.E., Reuter, D.C., 1996. Astrophys. J. 472, 903-907]). There is no current model for this enrichment, and we discuss several mechanisms that may be at work. © 2008 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

Abstract:

Observations of oscillations of temperature and wind in planetary atmospheres provide a means of generalizing models for atmospheric dynamics in a diverse set of planets in the Solar System and elsewhere. An equatorial oscillation similar to one in the Earth's atmosphere has been discovered in Jupiter. Here we report the existence of similar oscillations in Saturn's atmosphere, from an analysis of over two decades of spatially resolved observations of its 7.8-microm methane and 12.2-microm ethane stratospheric emissions, where we compare zonal-mean stratospheric brightness temperatures at planetographic latitudes of 3.6 degrees and 15.5 degrees in both the northern and the southern hemispheres. These results support the interpretation of vertical and meridional variability of temperatures in Saturn's stratosphere as a manifestation of a wave phenomenon similar to that on the Earth and in Jupiter. The period of this oscillation is 14.8 +/- 1.2 terrestrial years, roughly half of Saturn's year, suggesting the influence of seasonal forcing, as is the case with the Earth's semi-annual oscillation.