Bathymetry and composition of Titan's Ontario Lacus derived from Monte Carlo-based waveform inversion of Cassini RADAR altimetry data

Mastrogiuseppe, Marco; Hayes, Alexander G.; Poggiali, Valerio; Lunine, Jonathan I.; Lorenz, Ralph D.; Seu, R.; Gall, Alice Le; Notarnicola, Claudia; Mitchell, K. L.; Malaska, Michael J.; Birch, S.

doi:10.1016/j.icarus.2017.09.009

Cited by 44 publications

(45 citation statements)

References 21 publications

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“…Ontario Lacus has a substantially lower methane mole fraction (56–64%) because of the lower precipitation rate. The predicted methane mole fractions in Punga Mare, Ligeia Mare, and Ontario Lacus are all consistent with that measured by Cassini (Mastrogiuseppe et al, ; Mastrogiuseppe, Hayes, et al, ; Mastrogiuseppe, Poggiali, et al, ) within a 1 σ error bar.…”

Section: Resultssupporting

confidence: 82%

“…Seasonal variation in (a) lake surface methane mole fraction, (b) lake surface temperature, and (c) evaporation rate in selected lakes (Case 1). Also shown are the methane mole fractions retrieved from Cassini observations in Punga Mare (Mastrogiuseppe, Poggiali, et al, ) (blue error bar), Ligeia Mare (Mastrogiuseppe et al, ) (red error bar), and Ontario Lacus (Mastrogiuseppe, Hayes, et al, ) (black error bar).…”

Section: Resultsmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Therefore, lakebed seepage may in reality change the lake composition in these two maria by preferential seepage of methane and ethane. This effect is unlikely to be relevant in Ontario Lacus since its maximum depth of 50 m (Mastrogiuseppe, Hayes, et al, ) or 90 m (Hayes, ) is too shallow for the occurrence of phase splitting (Cordier et al, ). In all lakes S is a much larger sink than E and also exceeds the sum of the other three terms, so the annual methane budget is everywhere negative (Table ).…”

Section: Resultsmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Moreover, Walvis Sinus is now connected to Kraken Mare 2 by the channel Hardin Fretum (57°N, 42°E). The bathymetry of Ontario Lacus is constructed analogously to Lorenz et al () considering the bathymetry data obtained by Mastrogiuseppe, Hayes, et al (). The total lake surface area and total lake volume in the northern hemisphere in the model amount to 6.2 × 10 6 km 2 and 30,100 km 3 , respectively.…”

Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Titan's polar region, especially the northern one, is covered by a large number of hydrocarbon lakes (Aharonson et al, ; Brown et al, ; Hayes, ; Stofan et al, ). Ligeia Mare and Punga Mare near the north pole are primarily composed of methane (Mastrogiuseppe et al, , Mastrogiuseppe, Poggiali, et al, ), whereas Ontario Lacus at high southern latitudes contains approximately ∼50% methane (Mastrogiuseppe, Hayes, et al, ). The simultaneous presence of methane in the atmosphere and liquid lakes implies that methane can be exchanged between atmosphere and lakes by precipitation and evaporation.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Modeling of Seasonal Lake Level Fluctuations of Titan's Seas/Lakes

Tokano

Lorenz

2019

JGR Planets

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Seasonal variations in lake levels of Titan's hydrocarbon seas/lakes are predicted by an ocean circulation model in an effort to understand the observed temporal changes in lake size or lack thereof. Three different ground permeabilities are assumed so as to change the relative importance of precipitation, evaporation, river runoff, and groundwater seepage for the lake methane budget. The lake level generally rises in the rainy season around the summer solstice and falls or stagnates during long dry periods in autumn and winter. The annual lake level range in the northern hemisphere amounts to 50–120 cm depending on geographic location and size of the lakes and ground permeability. If the hydraulic connection between Punga Mare and Kraken Mare is weak, the lake level range of Punga Mare amplifies at the expense of other seas and also establishes a large lake level difference between these two seas, which is not compatible with the observation by the Cassini spacecraft. On‐lake precipitation would cause the lake level of Ontario Lacus to vary seasonally by merely 15 cm, yet river runoff from the huge catchment area can increase the annual lake level range to several meters. The shrinkage of Ontario Lacus observed by Cassini is more likely to be caused by lakebed seepage than by evaporation. The ultimate cause of the difference in the seasonal behavior between northern and southern lakes may be the hemispheric asymmetry in precipitation, be it caused astronomically or topographically.

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Section: Resultssupporting

confidence: 82%