Constraints on Titan's atmospheric conductivity and buried ocean depth, disclosed by the Schumann resonance

Christian Béghin (1) , Michel Hamelin (2) , C. Sotin (3) , R.C. Whitten (4) , Jean-Jacques Berthelier (2) , Réjean Grard (5) , F. Simões (6)

1 LPC2E - Laboratoire de Physique et Chimie de l'Environnement et de l'Espace
2 PLANETO - LATMOS
3 JPL - Jet Propulsion Laboratory
4 SETI Institute
5 RSSD - Research and Scientific Support Department, ESTEC
6 GSFC - NASA Goddard Space Flight Center

After six years of a thorough data analysis of the data collected by the Permittivity, Wave and Altimetry (PWA/HASI) experiment during the descent of the Huygens Probe through Titan's atmosphere in January 2005, we report the major findings inferred from the measurements of low frequency waves and atmospheric conductivity. The observations display a Schumann resonance trapped within Titan's atmospheric cavity. In this presentation, we describe the characteristics of the observed mode, that allow us to constrain the parameters of the ionospheric cavity and to infer the presence of a conductive water-ammonia ocean buried below the surface, at a likely depth of 70 ± 10 km.

Domains: Earth and Planetary Astrophysics [astro-ph.EP]; Solar and Stellar Astrophysics [astro-ph.SR]

Christian Béghin, Michel Hamelin, C. Sotin, R.C. Whitten, Jean-Jacques Berthelier, et al.. Constraints on Titan's atmospheric conductivity and buried ocean depth, disclosed by the Schumann resonance. EPSC-DPS Joint Meeting 2011, Oct 2011, Nantes, France. ⟨insu-01555780⟩