Cassini SAR, radiometry, scatterometry and altimetry observations of Titan’s dune fields

Formation of gravel pavements during fluvial erosion as an explanation for persistence of ancient cratered terrain on Titan and Mars

“…There are no physical or chemical weathering mechanisms observed operating in situ to break down on Titan massive water ice (or the alkanes) into particles (gravel and smaller) capable of being transported fluvially, despite abundant evidence for fluvial sculpting of its landscape (Collins, 2005;Perron et al, 2006;Burr et al, 2013). Dissected plains in the mid-latitudes of Titan (Moore et al, 2014) as well as extensive dune fields (e.g., Le Gall et al, 2011Gall et al, , 2012 suggest large amounts of transportable sediment. This sediment may have been derived from the physico-chemical breakdown of originally massive water ice, reworked impact-generated megaregolith (a scenario investigated here), or formation of hydrocarbon particle aggregates from photodissociation of methane (Lorenz et al, 2006;Clark et al, 2010).…”

A large-scale anomaly in Enceladus’ microwave emission

“…Scattering is important in understanding the microwave surface properties of Enceladus, as scattering has frequently been invoked to explain low emission of icy satellites in the microwave (cm/mm) regime (Muhleman and Berge, 1991;Ostro et al, 2006;Ries, 2012). Variation in microwave emission across different types of terrain has also been attributed to changes scattering properties across different types of terrain of Titan (Janssen et al, 2009;Le Gall et al, 2011) and Iapetus (Ries, 2012).…”

Recent developments in planetary Aeolian studies and their terrestrial analogs

“…The single equatorial desert belt on slowly-rotating Titan makes an instructive contrast with the Earth's midlatitude desert latitudes, defined largely by the downwelling (dry) branches of the Hadley circulation, the location of which is determined by the balance between solar heating and planetary rotation. Recent studies have thoroughly documented the latitude and elevation distributions of the sand dunes on Titan (e.g., see Le Gall et al, 2011, 2012.…”