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      The seasonal cycle of Titan's detached haze

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          Abstract

          Titan's 'detached' haze, seen in Voyager images in 1980 and 1981 and monitored by the Cassini Imaging Science Subsystem (ISS), during the period 2004-2017, provides a measure of seasonal activity in Titan's mesosphere with observations over almost one half of Saturn's seasonal cycle. Here we report on retrieved haze extinction profiles that reveal a depleted layer that visually manifests as a thin layer detached from the main haze below. Our new measurements show the disappearance of the feature in 2012 and its reappearance in 2016, as well as details after the reappearance. These observations highlight the dynamical nature of the detached haze. The reappearance appears congruent but more complex than previously described by climate models. It occurs in two steps, first as haze reappearing at \(450\pm20\) km and one year later at \(510\pm20\) km. These new observations provide additional tight and valuable constraints about the underlying mechanisms, especially for Titan's mesosphere, that control Titan's haze cycle.

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          Most cited references12

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          Titan global climate model: A new 3-dimensional version of the IPSL Titan GCM

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            Vertical distribution of scattering hazes in Titan's upper atmosphere

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              A wind origin for Titan's haze structure

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                Author and article information

                Journal
                28 April 2018
                Article
                10.1038/s41550-018-0434-z
                1804.10842
                364c3e10-5bc6-471f-9cfa-670bea660415

                http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/4.0/

                History
                Custom metadata
                Nature Astronomy, 2018
                astro-ph.EP

                Planetary astrophysics
                Planetary astrophysics

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