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Titan's Topography and Shape at the End of the Cassini Mission
Author(s) -
Corlies P.,
Hayes A. G.,
Birch S. P. D.,
Lorenz R.,
Stiles B. W.,
Kirk R.,
Poggiali V.,
Zebker H.,
Iess L.
Publication year - 2017
Publication title -
geophysical research letters
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 2.007
H-Index - 273
eISSN - 1944-8007
pISSN - 0094-8276
DOI - 10.1002/2017gl075518
Subject(s) - titan (rocket family) , flattening , geology , altimeter , geodesy , remote sensing , astrobiology , physics , astronomy
With the conclusion of the Cassini mission, we present an updated topographic map of Titan, including all the available altimetry, SARtopo, and stereophotogrammetry topographic data sets available from the mission. We use radial basis functions to interpolate the sparse data set, which covers only ∼9% of Titan's global area. The most notable updates to the topography include higher coverage of the poles of Titan, improved fits to the global shape, and a finer resolution of the global interpolation. We also present a statistical analysis of the error in the derived products and perform a global minimization on a profile‐by‐profile basis to account for observed biases in the input data set. We find a greater flattening of Titan than measured, additional topographic rises in Titan's southern hemisphere and better constrain the possible locations of past and present liquids on Titan's surface.