Published in

Titan from Cassini-Huygens, p. 373-391

DOI: 10.1007/978-1-4020-9215-2_15

Links

Tools

Export citation

Search in Google Scholar

Mass Loss Processes in Titan's Upper Atmosphere

This paper is available in a repository.
This paper is available in a repository.

Full text: Download

Question mark in circle
Preprint: policy unknown
Question mark in circle
Postprint: policy unknown
Question mark in circle
Published version: policy unknown

Abstract

Although Titan's atmospheric column density is about ten times that of the Earth's, its measured 15N/14N ratio suggests that considerable escape has occurred or that Titan's original material had a ratio closer to that of cometary materials. A number of active escape processes have been proposed: thermal escape, chemical-induced escape, slow hydrodynamic escape, pick-up ion loss, ionospheric outflow and plasma-ion-induced atmospheric sputtering. These loss processes and relevant simulations are reviewed in light of recent Cassini data.