HCN-C₆H₆ co-condensed ice cloud in Titan’s stratosphere: Laboratory study of the CIRS-observed HASP cloud
Date
2019-09Type of Work
2 pagesText
conference papers and proceedings
Rights
This item is likely protected under Title 17 of the U.S. Copyright Law. Unless on a Creative Commons license, for uses protected by Copyright Law, contact the copyright holder or the author.Attribution 4.0 International (CC BY 4.0)
https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/
Subjects
Titan’s atmospherePure nitrile ice clouds
cocondensation
laboratory thin ice film spectroscopy
benzene
formation mechanism
Abstract
For thirteen years, the Cassini mission to explore
Saturn and its icy moons has provided a large
repository of data on Titan’s atmosphere. Ice clouds
have been repeatedly observed in Titan's stratosphere
by the Cassini Composite InfraRed Spectrometer
(CIRS). Pure nitrile ice clouds have been identified
but the chemical composition of other observed ice
clouds is still undetermined. We propose cocondensation to be a formation mechanism of these
other clouds. With the aim to identify the HighAltitude South Polar (HASP) ice cloud, the most
recently observed cloud during the early Titan’s
southern winter, we have conducted laboratory thin
ice film spectroscopy of a series of organic mixed
ices and found that a C6H6-HCN co-condensed ice,
enriched in benzene, is the best chemical candidate
for the HASP cloud.
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Except where otherwise noted, this item's license is described as This item is likely protected under Title 17 of the U.S. Copyright Law. Unless on a Creative Commons license, for uses protected by Copyright Law, contact the copyright holder or the author.