Identification, Mapping, and Measurement of Titan Fluvial Features

Data from the Cassini-Huygens mission show various individual and networked curvilinear features on Titan's surface interpreted to have been formed by the flow of liquid methane. These inferred fluvial features are seen in the three Cassini surface imaging instrument datasets (from the Imaging Subsystem for Science, the Visual and Infrared Mapping Spectrometer, and the Cassini Titan RADAR Mapper). Such features are also seen in the Huygens Probe Descent Imager/Spectral Radiometer images, in which they have been classified as fluvial valleys. The features are visible at all latitudes, although the characteristics that suggest formation by fluvial flow change with latitude. To investigate the formation of Titan's fluvial features, we mapped out their locations in Synthetic Aperture Radar (SAR) images from the Cassini Titan RADAR Mapper and quantified their network parameters. First, released Cassini SAR images from flybys Ta, T3, T7, T13, and T23 were processed and reprojected using ISIS2 into the best map projections for obtaining accurate measurements, depending on the characteristics to be measured. Equidistant sinusoidal map projections were used to measure feature lengths and widths, whereas conformal mercator projections were used to measure junction angles at the confluence of fluvial features. Next, criteria were devised based on radar reflectance, illumination, and morphology with which to consistently identify the fluvial features. These criteria were then applied to the reprojected Cassini SAR images to create maps of the fluvial features. Finally, measurements were made of these mapped features to calculate their sizes, sinuosities, and junction angle. Using a published algorithm to classify terrestrial drainage network type from measured morphologic parameters, we found that the equatorial network of fluvial features over western Xanadu observed in the T13 radar swath would be classified as rectangular. On Earth, rectangular drainage networks are interpreted to be the result of surface flow over a jointed or fractured substrate. By analogy, the rectangular network over western Xanadu suggests faulting either previous to or simultaneous with surface fluvial flow in this location. Other fluvial networks on Titan showed dendritic and possibly parallel network drainage.