Flight through Titan’s Atmosphere

We assembled spectral image datacubes of Titan in H-band (1.4131.808 μm), using adaptive optics on the 10-m W.M. Keck telescope, by stepping a spectrometer slit across Titan’s disk. We constructed images of Titan at each wavelength by ‘glueing’ the spectra together, producing 1400ultra-narrowband (~0.1nm) views of the satellite. With this method one can characterise Titan’s atmosphere over the entire disk, in more specific vertical detail than possible with either narrowband imaging or slit spectroscopy at one position. Data were obtained of Titan’s leading hemisphere on UT 20 February 2001. At the shorter wavelengths we probe all the way down to the surface, revealing the familiar bright and dark terrain, while at longer wavelengths we probe various altitudes in the atmosphere. The data have been assembled into a movie, showing the surface and different haze layers while stepping up in altitude. The transitions from the surface to the tropospheric haze, and through the tropopause into the upper atmospheric haze, are clearly recognised.