Cassini RADAR Products of Saturn’s Moon Titan
Permanent URI for this collection
Browse
Recent Submissions
Item Data and Workflow for "Titan's Plains Revealed: Evidence for a Layered Surface”Fine, Anthony; Poggiali, Valerio; Lalich, Dan; Hayes, Alexander (2025)These files contain data supporting all results reported in Fine et. al. Evidence for a Layered Structure of Titan's Plains Observed by the Cassini RADAR. In Fine et. al. we found: Undifferentiated plains are the most common terrain type on Titan, yet their composition and geologic history remain poorly understood. To better characterize their physical properties, we combined Cassini RADAR measurements from nadir altimetry and side-looking SAR modes. We analyzed these data using radar backscatter models, finding that the multi-angle radar response from plains across Titan is remarkably consistent. This uniformity suggests globally similar properties and formation processes, permitting aggregate modeling. Our analysis reveals that canonical single-layer scattering models fail to reproduce the observed backscatter, particularly the bright near-nadir returns captured by altimetry, which proved critical for model discrimination and accurate parameter estimation. Instead, a two-layer model is required to robustly fit the data across all incidence angles. Best-fit parameters indicate plains likely consist of a highly porous, low-density surface layer (effective permittivity ~1.33) that is exceptionally smooth at radar wavelengths (RMS slope ~2°), overlying a higher-density (effective permittivity > 2.7) and rougher buried substrate. This surface layer is likely less than one meter thick. The layered structure, along with the observed global uniformity and extreme flatness at multiple scales, is most consistent with long-term atmospheric deposition of organic particles (“tholin snow”), which are subsequently densified or buried, potentially during periods of different environmental conditions. The structure of the plains provides insights into organic processing and transport on Titan, potentially preserves a record of past environmental conditions, and informs landing safety assessments for future missions. Specifically, the hypotheses made by this paper will be testable by the Dragonfly mission to Titan.Item Cassini Synthetic Aperture RADAR Derived Digital Topographic Models of Saturn's Moon TitanCorlies, Paul; Hayes, Alexander (2024)These are ISIS cube files of topographic models for Titan, reported in P. Corlies et al. "Titan's Topography and Shape at the End of the Cassini Mission." In P. Corlies et al. we found: With the conclusion of the Cassini mission, we present an updated topographic map of Titan, including all the available altimetry, SARtopo, and stereophotogrammetry topographic data sets available from the mission. We use radial basis functions to interpolate the sparse data set, which covers only ∼9% of Titan's global area. The most notable updates to the topography include higher coverage of the poles of Titan, improved fits to the global shape, and a finer resolution of the global interpolation. We also present a statistical analysis of the error in the derived products and perform a global minimization on a profile-by-profile basis to account for observed biases in the input data set. We find a greater flattening of Titan than measured, additional topographic rises in Titan's southern hemisphere and better constrain the possible locations of past and present liquids on Titan's surface.Item Cassini Synthetic Aperture RADAR Swath Mosaic of Saturn's Moon Titan for the Equatorial Region, Quadrant 4Birch, Samuel; Hayes, Alexander (2024)This is an ISIS cube (.cub) file of a mosaic of all SAR swaths of Titan's equatorial region, latitudes 60S to 60N, quadrant 4, longitudes 85E to180E.Item Cassini Synthetic Aperture RADAR Swath Mosaic of Saturn's Moon Titan for the Equatorial Region, Quadrant 3Birch, Samuel; Hayes, Alexander (2024)This is an ISIS cube (.cub) file of a mosaic of all SAR swaths of Titan's equatorial region, latitudes 60S to 60N, quadrant 3, longitudes 5W to 95E.Item Cassini Synthetic Aperture RADAR Swath Mosaic of Saturn's Moon Titan for the Equatorial Region, Quadrant 2Birch, Samuel; Hayes, Alexander (2024)This is an ISIS cube (.cub) file of a mosaic of all SAR swaths of Titan's equatorial region, latitudes 60S to 60N, quadrant 2, longitudes 95W to 5E.Item Cassini Synthetic Aperture RADAR Swath Mosaic of Saturn's Moon Titan for the Equatorial Region, Quadrant 1Birch, Samuel; Hayes, Alexander (2024)This is an ISIS cube (.cub) file of a mosaic of all SAR swaths of Titan's equatorial region, latitudes 60S to 60N, quadrant 1, longitudes 180W to 85W.Item Cassini Synthetic Aperture RADAR Swath Mosaic of Saturn's Moon Titan for the South Polar RegionBirch, Samuel; Hayes, Alexander (2024)This is an ISIS cube (.cub) file of a mosaic of all SAR swaths of Titan's south polar region.Item Cassini Synthetic Aperture RADAR Swath Mosaic of Saturn's Moon Titan for the North Polar RegionBirch, Samuel; Hayes, Alexander (2024)This is an ISIS cube (.cub) file of a mosaic of all SAR swaths of Titan's north polar region.Item Cassini Synthetic Aperture RADAR Digital Map Products of Titan DatasetKirk, Randolph L.; Wall, Stephen D.; Stiles, Bryan W.; Hayes, Alexander G.; Mitchell, Karl L.; Lorenz, Ralph D.; Janssen, Michael A.; Bills, Bruce G.; Poggiali, Valerio; Schoenfeld, Ashley (2024-07)The Digital Map Products (DMPs) are high-level, gridded (raster) maps of Titan produced by the United States Geological Survey (USGS), Flagstaff, from the lower-level JPL Cassini Synthetic Aperture RADAR (SAR) products (SBDR, BIDR, and supplement files). The USGS cartographic system Integrated Software for Imagers and Spectrometers (ISIS) is used for this processing, augmented by the commercial stereoanalysis package Softcopy Exploitation Toolkit (SOCET SET) for production of stereo topographic maps. A total of eight DMP data sets are produced. The Global Radiometry Data Record (GRDR), Global Scatterometry Data Record (GSDR), Global Topography Data Record (GTDR), and Mosaicked Image Data Record (MIDR) products are mosaics of data from multiple observation segments. The Pass Radiometry Data Record (PRDR), Pass Scatterometry Data Record (PSDR), and Repeat Image Data Record (RIDR) products have a separate set of files for each segment. Stereo DTM products are derived from pairs of such segments. These are indicated by flyby number TXXX and segment number SXX in the PRODUCT_ID and file name. Segments during which SAR or HiSAR data were obtained are numbered identically to the BIDRs; non-SAR/HiSAR segments are assigned higher numbers. [S. D. Wall et al., Cassini RADAR Users Guide, 2019]