Publication Date:
2022-03-25
Description:
Titan's paleoclimate after the onset of the putative last major methane outgassing event 700 Myr ago is simulated by a global climate model. If the atmosphere was methane‐depleted prior to outgassing, outgassed methane initially causes warming due to increased greenhouse effect. Further outgassing leads to methane snowfall, which in turn cools the troposphere and surface by an ice‐albedo feedback and thereby initiates a lengthy ice age. Formation of ice sheets begins in the polar region, but with increasing methane inventory the entire globe is eventually covered by surface methane frost as thick as 100 m, with local accumulation on elevated terrains. Among various time‐dependent input parameters the methane inventory by far exerts the greatest control over the climate evolution. As Titan's climate transitions from a dry state via a partially ice‐covered state to a globally ice‐covered state, the circulation and precipitation pattern change profoundly and the tropospheric temperature further decreases. Globally ice‐covered snowball Titan is characterized by weak meridional circulation, weak seasonality and widespread snowfall. Frost ablation begins after the end of outgassing due to photochemical destruction of atmospheric methane. It is conceivable that Titan's polar seas resulted from melting of the polar caps within the past 10 Myr and subsequent drainage to the polar basins. Surface methane frost could only melt when the frost retreated to the polar region, which led to global warming by lowering of the surface albedo at low latitudes and increased greenhouse effect.
Description:
Plain Language Summary:
Saturn's moon Titan may have experienced long periods of cold climate in the past when the nitrogen atmosphere contained no methane unlike the present atmosphere. We simulated how Titan's climate may have changed when large amounts of methane were outgassed into such a cold atmosphere as indicated by models of Titan's evolution. The atmosphere can hold a certain amount of methane but the vast majority of outgassed methane condenses out as snow and is deposited on the surface. Bright methane snow on the surface keeps the surface cold and thereby prevents efficient greenhouse warming. Initially, surface methane frost is confined to high latitudes, but eventually the entire globe will be ice‐covered under the assumed total amount of outgassed methane. The seasonal and global pattern of atmospheric circulation and snowfall strongly depend on the degree of frost coverage. The surface frost sublimes away long after outgassing has ceased because methane is destroyed in the atmosphere by photochemistry. Eventually, the polar caps melt, leaving behind the observed polar seas.
Description:
Key Points:
Massive methane outgassing into Titan's atmosphere should have caused global ice sheets if the atmosphere was previously depleted in methane.
Climate of methane snowball Titan is characterized by weak circulation, low temperature, weak seasonality and widespread snowfall.
Melting polar caps in geologically recent past may have resulted in polar seas.
Description:
Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG)
http://dx.doi.org/10.13039/501100001659
Keywords:
ddc:523
;
ddc:551.5
Language:
English
Type:
doc-type:article
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