Climate of Titan

The climate of Titan, the largest moon of Saturn, is similar in many respects to that of Earth, despite having a far lower surface temperature. Its thick atmosphere, methane rain, and possible cryovolcanism create an analogue, though with different materials, to the climatic changes undergone by Earth during its far shorter year.

Titan receives just about 1% of the amount of sunlight Earth does. The average surface temperature is about 98.29 K (−179 °C, or −290 °F). At this temperature water ice has an extremely low vapor pressure, so the atmosphere is nearly free of water vapor. However the methane in the atmosphere causes a substantial greenhouse effect which keeps the surface of Titan at a much higher temperature than what would otherwise be the thermal equilibrium.

Haze in Titan's atmosphere contributes to an anti-greenhouse effect by reflecting sunlight back into space, making its surface significantly colder than its upper atmosphere. This partially compensates for the greenhouse warming, and keeps the surface somewhat cooler than would otherwise be expected from the greenhouse effect alone. According to McKay et al., "the anti-greenhouse effect on Titan reduces the surface temperature by 9 K whereas the greenhouse effect increases it by 21 K. The net effect is that the surface temperature (94 K) is 12 K warmer than the effective temperature 82 K. [i.e., the equilibrium that would be reached in the absence of any atmosphere]"

Titan's orbital tilt with respect to the sun is very close to Saturn's axial tilt (about 27°), and its axial tilt with respect to its orbit is zero. This means that the direction of incoming sunlight is driven almost entirely by Titan's day-night cycle and Saturn's year cycle. The day cycle on Titan lasts 15.9 Earth days, which is how long it takes Titan to orbit Saturn. Titan is tidally locked, so the same part of Titan always faces Saturn, and there is no separate "month" cycle.

Seasonal change is driven by Saturn's year: it takes Saturn about 29.5 Earth years to orbit the sun, exposing different amounts of sunlight to Titan's northern and southern hemispheres during different parts of the Saturnian year. Seasonal weather changes include larger hydrocarbon lakes in the northern hemisphere during the winter, decreased haze around the equinoxes due to changing atmospheric circulation, and associated ice clouds in the South Polar regions. The last equinox occurred on August 11, 2009; this was the spring equinox for the northern hemisphere, meaning the southern hemisphere is getting less sunlight and moving into winter.

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