Roe Henry G, Brown Michael E, Schaller Emily L, Bouchez Antonin H, Trujillo Chadwick A
Division of Geological and Planetary Sciences, California Institute of Technology, Pasadena, CA 91125, USA.
Science. 2005 Oct 21;310(5747):477-9. doi: 10.1126/science.1116760.
Observations of Titan's mid-latitude clouds from the W. M. Keck and Gemini Observatories show that they cluster near 350 degrees W longitude, 40 degrees S latitude. These clouds cannot be explained by a seasonal shift in global circulation and thus presumably reflect a mechanism on Titan such as geysering or cryovolcanism in this region. The rate of volatile release necessary to trigger cloud formation could easily supply enough methane to balance the loss to photolysis in the upper atmosphere.
来自W.M. 凯克天文台和双子座天文台对土卫六中纬度云层的观测表明，它们聚集在西经350度、南纬40度附近。这些云层无法用全球环流的季节性变化来解释，因此推测反映出土卫六上该区域存在间歇泉或低温火山活动等机制。引发云层形成所需的挥发性物质释放速率能够轻易提供足够的甲烷，以平衡高层大气中因光解作用造成的损失。
