Lots of clouds are visible in this infrared image of Saturn's moon Titan. These clouds form and move much like those on Earth, but in a much slower, more lingering fashion.
Summer daze on Saturn's biggest moon
6 Jun 2009
Cloud chasers studying Saturn's moon Titan say its clouds form and move much like those on Earth, but in a much slower, more lingering fashion.
Scientists with NASA's Cassini mission have monitored Titan's atmosphere for three-and-a-half years, between July 2004 and December 2007, and observed more than 200 clouds.
They found that the way these clouds are spread around Titan matches scientists' global circulation models. The only exception is the timing—clouds are still noticeable in the southern hemisphere as the moon's autumn is approaching.
"Titan's clouds don't move with the seasons exactly as we expected," said Sebastien Rodriguez of the University of Paris Diderot.
"We see lots of clouds during the summer in the southern hemisphere, and this summer weather seems to last into the early fall" added Rodriguez. "It looks like Indian summer on Earth, even if the mechanisms are radically different on Titan from those on Earth."
On Earth, abnormally warm, dry weather periods in late autumn occur when low-pressure systems are blocked in the winter hemisphere. By contrast, scientists think the sluggishness of temperature changes at the surface and low in the atmosphere on Titan may be responsible for its unexpected warm and wet, hence cloudy, late summer.
< Saturn's moon Titan has a thick atmosphere.
Titan is the only moon in our Solar System with a substantial atmosphere, and its climate shares Earth-like characteristics. Titan's dense, nitrogen-methane atmosphere responds much more slowly than Earth's atmosphere, as it receives about 100 times less sunlight because it is 10 times farther from the sun. Seasons on Titan last more than seven Earth years.
Adapted from information issued by NASA JPL.
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