Implications of Titan's north-south brightness asymmetry

Abstract

Voyager 1 images of Titan, when normalized to remove limb darkening, reveal an axially symmetric brightness pattern with significant north-south asymmetry. This interhemispheric contrast seems to be a response to seasonal solar heating variations resulting from Titan's inclined spin axis. The contrast significantly lags the solar forcing, indicating that its production involves the atmosphere well below the unit optical depth level. The contrast has a significant effect on Titan's disk-integrated brightness as seen from Earth, and probably accounts for most of the observed long term variation, with solar UV variations accounting for the remainder. © 1981 Nature Publishing Group.