Issue |
A&A
Volume 437, Number 1, July I 2005
|
|
---|---|---|
Page(s) | 319 - 328 | |
Section | Planets and planetary systems | |
DOI | https://doi.org/10.1051/0004-6361:20042117 | |
Published online | 10 June 2005 |
Interferometric measurements of zonal winds on Titan
1
LESIA, Observatoire de Paris-Meudon, 5 place Jules Janssen, 92195 Meudon, France e-mail: [raphael.moreno;andre.marten]@obspm.fr
2
Department of Astronomy and Bosscha Observatory, ITB, Bandung, 40132, Indonesia e-mail: taufiq@as.itb.ac.id
Received:
5
October
2004
Accepted:
28
January
2005
We report millimetre observations of Titan
performed with the IRAM Plateau de Bure Interferometer at the
rotational frequencies of HC3N(25–24) and CH3CN(12–11). The
most extended configuration of the array yielded disk-resolved emission
spectra of Titan with an angular resolution of 0.6´´.
Data were acquired in February–March 2003 and February 2004 near the greatest eastern and western elongations of Titan at high spectral resolution (
106). Doppler lineshift measurements enable us to
establish that the zonal wind flow is prograde in the upper atmosphere. Two different altitude regions are probed. Beam–integrated equatorial wind velocities of 160 (
) m/s and 60 (
) m/s are determined at respective altitudes of 300 (
) km (upper stratosphere) and 450 (
) km (lower mesosphere). The latter is the first direct
determination of mesospheric wind speed on Titan.
Key words: planets and satellites: individual: Titan / techniques: interferometric / radio lines: solar system
© ESO, 2005
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