Constraining Titan's Seasonal Tropospheric Haze Distribution

限制泰坦的季节性对流层霾分布

• 批准号: 2307894
• 负责人: Paul Corlies
• 金额: $ 48.9万
• 依托单位: Spectral Sciences Inc
• 依托单位国家: 美国
• 项目类别: Standard Grant
• 财政年份: 2023
• 资助国家: 美国
• 起止时间: 2023-09-01 至 2026-08-31
• 项目状态: 未结题
• 来源: https://www.nsf.gov/awardsearch/showAward?AWD_ID=2307894&HistoricalAwards=false
• 关键词: Constraining; Titan; Seasonal; Tropospheric; Haze

Titan, the largest moon of Saturn, is unlike any other moon in the solar system. A thick hazy atmosphere enshrouds the moon and affects the composition of Titan's lakes and erosion of the surface. The project will model the seasonal abundance and distribution of this unique haze in order to understand the physical processes that drive the circulation of the atmosphere. This project will engage the broader community through the development of user-friendly GUIs that will introduce current graduate and undergraduate students to the complex physical processes behind radiative transfer codes. This work will stimulate a unique partnership between academia and industry that will enhance the scientific return of atmospheric models essential to the planetary community. Understanding the global distribution and properties of Titan’s hazes is paramount for revealing the critical roles hazes play in global circulation, radiative balance and atmospheric chemistry. To date, it has been difficult to constrain the circulation and distribution of aerosols due to the inability of current radiation transfer codes to accurately model the complex absorption and scattering effects in the atmosphere. This program will explore the seasonal and dynamical connections between Titan’s upper and lower atmospheres. The project will expand two principal radiative transfer codes to incorporate newly available methane line lists. The team will also improve the numerical treatment of atmospheric radiative-transfer equations to accurately model scattering, absorption, and emission in vertically inhomogeneous, non-isothermal, plane-parallel layers. The team will validate the models using a combination of ground and space-based observations of the Huygens landing site and will produce the first maps of the distribution of haze in Titan’s troposphere. The development of accurate radiative transfer codes is of vital importance to not only the Titan community but also for the (exo)planetary communities.This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.

泰坦（Titan）是土星最大的月亮，与太阳系中的任何其他月亮不同。厚厚的朦胧气氛笼罩着月亮，影响泰坦湖的组成和表面侵蚀。该项目将对这种独特的雾度的季节抽象和分布进行建模，以了解驱动大气循环的物理过程。该项目将通过开发用户友好的GUI来吸引更广泛的社区，这将向当前的毕业生和本科生介绍辐射转移代码背后的复杂物理过程。这项工作将刺激学术界与行业之间的独特伙伴关系，这将增强行星社区必不可少的大气模型的科学回报。了解泰坦巨人的全球分布和特性对于揭示在全球循环，辐射平衡和大气化学中的关键作用至关重要。迄今为止，由于电流辐射转移代码无法准确对大气中的复杂抽象和散射效应进行准确模拟，因此很难限制气溶胶的循环和分布。该计划将探索泰坦上层和下部气氛之间的季节性和动态连接。该项目将扩大两个主要辐射转移代码，以包含新的甲烷线列表。该团队还将改善大气辐射转移方程的数值处理，以准确散射，吸收和发射，垂直不均匀，非等温平行层。该团队将使用Huygens着陆点的地面和基于空间的观测值组合来验证模型，并将在Titan的对流层中生成雾兹分布的第一张地图。准确的辐射转移法规的发展对于不仅对泰坦社区，而且对（EXO）行星社区也至关重要。该奖项反映了NSF的法定任务，并且通过使用基金会的知识分子的智力优点和更广泛的影响来评估NSF的法定任务。