The bathymetry of Moray Sinus at Titan's Kraken Mare - INSU - Institut national des sciences de l'Univers Accéder directement au contenu
Article Dans Une Revue Journal of Geophysical Research. Planets Année : 2020

The bathymetry of Moray Sinus at Titan's Kraken Mare

Résumé

Moray Sinus is an estuary located at the northern end of Titan's Kraken Mare. The Cassini RADAR altimeter acquired three segments over this mare during the T104 flyby of Titan, on August 21st, 2014. Herein, we present a detailed analysis of the received echoes. Some of these waveforms exhibit a reflection from the seafloor, from up to 85‐18+28 m of depth (1σ error). Monte‐Carlo simulations have been performed in order to assess the most probable values and estimation errors for the seafloor depth. Insights from this study, featuring the synergic use of the synthetic aperture radar images coupled to the altimetry and passive radiometry datasets, have been used to constrain the dielectric properties (i.e., absorptivity of the liquid) and roughness of this region of Kraken Mare. The resulting Ku‐band specific attenuation of the liquid is 17‐3+3 dB/μs, corresponding to a loss tangent of 4.6‐0.9+0.9×10‐5, which is very similar to the loss tangent estimated at Ligeia Mare. The data in hand do not permit us to discern the most likely explanation for the lack of a seafloor reflection from the main body of Kraken Mare: either a very deep sea or a more absorbing liquid composition. However, if the main body of Kraken Mare is characterized by an absorption similar to Moray Sinus, then based on models of the response to altimetry mode observations we can conclude that it exceeds 100 meters of depth, which is also compatible with radiometry observations.
Fichier principal
Vignette du fichier
2020JE006558.pdf (3.22 Mo) Télécharger le fichier
Origine : Fichiers éditeurs autorisés sur une archive ouverte

Dates et versions

insu-03003839 , version 1 (04-12-2020)

Identifiants

Citer

Valerio Poggiali, Alexander G. Hayes, Marco Mastrogiuseppe, Alice Le Gall, D. Lalich, et al.. The bathymetry of Moray Sinus at Titan's Kraken Mare. Journal of Geophysical Research. Planets, 2020, 125 (12), pp.e2020JE006558. ⟨10.1029/2020JE006558⟩. ⟨insu-03003839⟩
207 Consultations
202 Téléchargements

Altmetric

Partager

Gmail Facebook X LinkedIn More