Thermal Inertia Controls on Titan’s Surface Temperature and Planetary Boundary Layer Structure

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On 15 October 1997, NASA’s Cassini orbiter embarked on an epic, seven-year voyage to the Saturnian system. Hitching a ride was ESA’s Huygens probe, destined for Saturn’s largest moon, Titan. The final chapter of the interplanetary trek for Huygens began on 25 December 2004 when it deployed from the orbiter for a 21-day solo cruise toward the haze-shrouded moon. Plunging into Titan’s atmosphere, on 14 January 2005, the probe survived the hazardous 2 hour 27 minute descent to touch down safely on Titan’s frozen surface. Larger image — ESA

Understanding Titan’s planetary boundary layer (PBL) — the lowest region of the atmosphere influenced by surface conditions — remains challenging due to Titan’s thick atmosphere and limited observations.

Previous modeling studies have also produced inconsistent estimates of surface temperature, a critical determinant of PBL behavior, often without clear explanations grounded in surface energy balance.

In this study, we develop a theoretical framework and apply a three-dimensional dry general circulation model (GCM) to investigate how surface thermal inertia influences surface energy balance and temperature variability across diurnal and seasonal timescales. At diurnal timescales, lower thermal inertia surfaces exhibit larger temperature swings and enhanced sensible heat fluxes due to inefficient subsurface heat conduction.

In contrast, at seasonal timescales, surface temperature variations show weak sensitivity to thermal inertia, as atmospheric damping tends to dominate over subsurface conduction. The PBL depth ranges from a few hundred meters to 1,000 m on diurnal timescales, while seasonal maxima reach 2,000–3,000 m, supporting the interpretation from a previous study that the Huygens probe captured the two PBL structures.

Simulated seasonal winds at the Huygens landing site successfully reproduce key observed features, including near-surface retrograde winds and meridional wind reversals within the lowest few kilometers, consistent with Titan’s cross-equatorial Hadley circulation.

Simulations at the planned Dragonfly landing site predict shallower thermal PBLs with broadly similar wind patterns. This work establishes a physically grounded framework for understanding Titan’s surface temperature and boundary layer variability, and offers a unified explanation of Titan’s PBL behavior that provides improved guidance for future missions.

Sooman Han, Juan M. Lora

Comments: 25 pages, 11 figures
Subjects: Earth and Planetary Astrophysics (astro-ph.EP); Atmospheric and Oceanic Physics (physics.ao-ph)
Cite as: arXiv:2506.23477 [astro-ph.EP] (or arXiv:2506.23477v1 [astro-ph.EP] for this version)
https://doi.org/10.48550/arXiv.2506.23477
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Submission history
From: Sooman Han
[v1] Mon, 30 Jun 2025 02:46:00 UTC (6,806 KB)
https://arxiv.org/abs/2506.23477
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