CaltechAUTHORS
Published December 15, 2011 | Version Published
Journal Article Open

The global energy balance of Titan

Creators

  • 1. ROR icon University of Houston
  • 2. ROR icon University of Maryland, College Park
  • 3. ROR icon Goddard Space Flight Center
  • 4. ROR icon Cornell University
  • 5. ROR icon Jet Propulsion Lab
  • 6. ROR icon California Institute of Technology

Abstract

The global energy budget of planets and their moons is a critical factor to influence the climate change on these objects. Here we report the first measurement of the global emitted power of Titan. Long-term (2004–2010) observations conducted by the Composite Infrared Spectrometer (CIRS) onboard Cassini reveal that the total emitted power by Titan is (2.84 ± 0.01) × 10^(14) watts. Together with previous measurements of the global absorbed solar power of Titan, the CIRS measurements indicate that the global energy budget of Titan is in equilibrium within measurement error. The uncertainty in the absorbed solar energy places an upper limit on the energy imbalance of 6.0%.

Additional Information

© 2011 American Geophysical Union. Received 18 October 2011; revised 8 November 2011; accepted 9 November 2011; published 15 December 2011. NASA Outer Planets Research Program funded this work. We are grateful for valuable comments and suggestions on this work from Christopher P. McKay and the other anonymous reviewer.

Attached Files

Published - Li2011p16842Geophys_Res_Lett.pdf

Files

Li2011p16842Geophys_Res_Lett.pdf

Files (345.1 kB)

Name Size
md5:cce018e2541d5927462f17ebf22c2573
345.1 kB Preview Download

Additional details

Identifiers

Eprint ID
29008
Resolver ID
CaltechAUTHORS:20120127-151220557

Funding

NASA

Dates

Created
2012-01-30
Created from EPrint's datestamp field
Updated
2021-11-09
Created from EPrint's last_modified field

Caltech Custom Metadata

Caltech groups
Division of Geological and Planetary Sciences (GPS)