The thermospheres of Earth, Titan and Saturn compared
Abstract
While measurements for the past 4 decades have given us an in-depth understanding of our terrestrial thermosphere and its coupling to the lower atmosphere, the ionosphere and magnetospthere, little is yet known about the upper atmospheres on other planets of our solar system. In the coming months, the arrival of the Cassini/Huygens spacecraft at Saturn and Titan will give us a wealth of new observational constraints on their upper atmospheres which, in spite of their equal distances from the Sun, host very different environments. Using recently developed General Circulation Models for Saturn and Titan, we may however already in anticipation of these observations obtain an understanding of principal processes controlling the dynamics, energetics and global composition in their thermospheres. This talk will highlight some key results from such simulations and elaborate an understanding of similarities and differences between Earth, Saturn and Titan.
- Publication:
-
AGU Spring Meeting Abstracts
- Pub Date:
- May 2004
- Bibcode:
- 2004AGUSMSA41A..02M
- Keywords:
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- 0355 Thermosphere: composition and chemistry;
- 3210 Modeling;
- 5409 Atmospheres: structure and dynamics;
- 5707 Atmospheres: structure and dynamics