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Hydrocarbon lakes on Titan: Distribution and interaction with a porous regolith
Author(s) -
Hayes A.,
Aharonson O.,
Callahan P.,
Elachi C.,
Gim Y.,
Kirk R.,
Lewis K.,
Lopes R.,
Lorenz R.,
Lunine J.,
Mitchell K.,
Mitri G.,
Stofan E.,
Wall S.
Publication year - 2008
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 - 10.1029/2008gl033409
Subject(s) - titan (rocket family) , regolith , geology , methane , water cycle , polar , synthetic aperture radar , petroleum seep , latitude , environmental science , astrobiology , remote sensing , ecology , physics , geodesy , astronomy , biology
Synthetic Aperture Radar (SAR) images of Titan's north polar region reveal quasi‐circular to complex features which are interpreted to be liquid hydrocarbon lakes. We investigate methane transport in Titan's hydrologic cycle using the global distribution of lake features. As of May 2007, the SAR data set covers ∼22% of the surface and indicates multiple lake morphologies which are correlated across the polar region. Lakes are limited to latitudes above 55°N and vary from <10 to more than 100,000 km 2 . The size and location of lakes provide constraints on parameters associated with subsurface transport. Using porous media properties inferred from Huygens probe observations, timescales for flow into and out of observed lakes are shown to be in the tens of years, similar to seasonal cycles. Derived timescales are compared to the time between collocated SAR observations in order to consider the role of subsurface transport in Titan's hydrologic cycle.