The Gravity Field of Titan From Four Cassini Flybys

Doppler tracking of the Cassini spacecraft across four flybys has been used for a preliminary determination of Titan's gravity field. The flybys occurred on February 27, 2006, December 28, 2006, June 29, 2007 and July 31, 2008, with closest approach altitudes between 1300 and 2100 km. X- and Ka-band Doppler data from each flyby have been combined in a multi-arc solution for the Stokes coefficients up to degree-3. The dynamical models employed in the data fit were limited to the static component of the gravity field and did not include eccentricity tides. Tidal variations of the quadrupole coefficients are expected at a level of a few percents if the surface hides an internal ocean, and are therefore accessible to Cassini measurements. As the flybys were evenly distributed about pericenter and apocenter of Titan's orbit, the current analysis provides a good representation of the static component of the quadrupole field. In one setup, Titan's ephemerides were also updated, leading to improved determination of the satellite's orbit and gravitational parameter (GM). The measured gravity field is dominated by a large, nearly hydrostatic, quadrupole component, consistent with an equilibrium response to the perturbations due to rotation and Saturn gravity gradient. The magnitude of the degree-3 coefficients accounts for about 1-3% of the overall field, with significant gravity disturbances (at a level of 2-5 mgal) over broad regions of the surface. The corresponding peak-to-peak geoid height variations amount to a few tens of meters. The ellipsoidal reference surface shows variations among the axes of a few hundred meters. The near hydrostaticity of Titan justifies the application of Radau-Darwin equilibrium theory, which provides the fluid Love number and the average moment of inertia. The latter is consistent with a partial, but not full, differentiation of the interior. This work was partly conducted at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory, California Institute of Technology, under contract with the National Aeronautics and Space Administration. Funding in the USA and in Italy was provided by the Cassini Project and by the Italian Space Agency, respectively.