期刊
NATURE
卷 514, 期 7520, 页码 65-+出版社
NATURE PUBLISHING GROUP
DOI: 10.1038/nature13789
关键词
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资金
- PEPSci programme of the Netherlands Organisation for Scientific Research (NWO)
- UK Science and Technology Facilities Council
- Agence Nationale de la Recherche for support (ANR Project APOSTIC, France) [11BS56002, 968]
- Science and Technology Facilities Council [ST/F007957/2, ST/K00106X/1, ST/I001948/1] Funding Source: researchfish
- STFC [ST/I001948/1, ST/K00106X/1, ST/F007957/2] Funding Source: UKRI
Titan's middle atmosphere is currently experiencing a rapid change of season after northern spring arrived in 2009 (refs 1, 2). A large cloud was observed(3) for the first time above Titan's southern pole in May 2012, at an altitude of 300 kilometres. A temperature maximum was previously observed there, and condensation was not expected for any of Titan's atmospheric gases. Here we report that this cloud is composed of micrometre-sized particles of frozen hydrogen cyanide (HCN ice). The presence of HCN particles at this altitude, together with temperature determinations from mid-infrared observations, indicate a dramatic cooling of Titan's atmosphere inside the winter polar vortex in early 2012. Such cooling is in contrast to previously measured high-altitude warming in the polar vortex(1), and temperatures are a hundred degrees colder than predicted by circulation models(4). These results show that post-equinox cooling at the winter pole of Titan is much more efficient than previously thought.
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