LPSC Notes Part 4

Even more...

• Channels and Fan-like features Conclusions
  • SAR-bright channels, associated fan-like features, and flows suggest the presence of transported material w/ different radar properties than the surrounding materials
  • while surface roughness drives much of the reflected signal from terrestrial surfaces, Titan's observed volume backscattering implies that near-surface structure or compositional change could, to some extent, define surface features
  • Two possible explainations based on SAR and Radiometry data at these features
    • SAR-bright return is associated w/ a high component of volume backscattering possibly due to presence of low absorbing porous material (a mixture of low and high dielectic constant)
    • SAR-bright return results from a high component of volume backscattering derived from fluvially-transported and deposited hetereogenous materials (ice-rocks) of a size greater than the operational radar wavelength of 2.17 cm; here the SAR-bright linear features might be associated w/ fluvial (most likely hydrocarbon) channels and the fan-like features then be alluvial in nature
• Impact craters from RADAR
  • crater identification hampered by volume scattering and other round features like calderas
  • 80-km wide crater in T3 swath
    • impact crater?
    • dark ejecta blanket - 150 km - impact melt?
    • parabolic bright deposit 260 km+
    • sharp rim crest
    • gullies on wall
    • flat floor, no central peak
    • two tone floor - aeolian?
    • strongly modified crater interior, but...
    • small scale features preserved outside crater in ejecta blanket - relatively young
    • relation to dark linear features in dark terrain?
    • nearby round features - old craters?
  • 440-km multi-ring basin
    • moat - crater lake?
    • wind streaks or wavecrests near south east rim
    • downslope fluvial features along eastern and south eastern rim
    • gullies in rim
    • hummocky central region

I guess that's it for these. I might post more next week. For now, I think that's enough ;)