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24 April 2024 |
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Article overview
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Air-Sea Interactions on Titan: Lake Evaporation, Atmospheric Circulation, and Cloud Formation | | Scot C. R. Rafkin
; Alejandro Soto
; | | Date: |
30 Mar 2019 | | Abstract: | Titan’s abundant lakes and seas exchange methane vapor and energy with the
atmosphere via a process generally known as air-sea interaction. This turbulent
exchange process is investigated with an atmospheric mesoscale model coupled to
a slab model representation of an underlying lake. The impact of lake size,
effective lake mixed layer depth, background wind speed, air-lake temperature
differential, atmospheric humidity, and diabatic heating of the atmosphere on
air-sea interaction processes is studied through 67 two-dimensional
simulations. The general, quasi-steady solution is a non-linear superposition
of a plume circulation driven by the buoyancy of evaporated methane and an
opposing thermally direct (sea breeze) circulation driven by the thermal
contrast between the cold marine layer over the lake and the warmer inland air.
The specific solution depends on the value of selected atmosphere and lake
property parameters and ranges from a persistent and strong methane-rich plume
circulation over the lake with little to no sea breeze, or a rapidly developing
sea breeze with a highly suppressed plume circulation. The solutions that
appear most consistent with limited observational constraints are those where a
sea breeze circulation is able to offset the opposing plume circulation. This
scenario results in a cool, moist, and statically stable shallow marine layer
with nearly calm winds and small turbulent flux exchanges with an underlying
lake that is at least 2 K colder than the atmosphere. Other configurations
produced extreme scenarios with strong surface winds that could trigger waves,
supersaturated layers at the top of the plume circulation that would be
conducive to cloud formation, and lakes cold enough to freeze. These extreme
scenarios are unlikely to be realistic based on limited observational
constraints. | | Source: | arXiv, 1904.0120 | | Services: | Forum | Review | PDF | Favorites | |
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