Extreme Forward Scattering Observed in Disk-Averaged Near-Infrared Phase Curves of Titan

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Extreme Forward Scattering Observed in Disk-Averaged Near-Infrared Phase Curves of Titan

Major steps in the disk detection process on two cubes: (far left) an unaltered cube; (center left) edge pixels identified using Canny edge detection – some pixels along terrain boundaries are falsely identified as edge pixels; (center right) the accumulator array after applying a circle Hough transform; (far right) the final array, containing only data from the disk of Titan. Data were taken at 2 µm. — astro-ph.EP

Titan, with its thick and hazy atmosphere, is a key world in our solar system for understanding light scattering processes.

NASA’s Cassini mission monitored Titan between 2004 and 2017, where the derived dataset includes a large number of whole disk observations. Once spatially integrated, these whole disk observations reveal Titan’s phase-dependent brightness which can serve as an analog for how hazy worlds might appear around other stars.

To explore Titan’s phase curve, we present a pipeline for whole disk Titan observations acquired by the Cassini Visual and Infrared Mapping Spectrometer (VIMS) spanning 0.9–5.1 μm.

Application of the pipeline finds over 4,400 quality spatially- and spectrally-resolved datacubes that were then integrated over Titan’s disk to yield phase curves spanning 2–165degree{} in phase angle. Spectra at near-full phase provide a useful approximation for Titan’s geometric albedo, thus extending the spectral coverage of previous work.

Crescent phase brightness enhancements in the Cassini VIMS phase curves are often more extreme than analogous results seen at optical wavelengths, which can be explained by atmospheric transparency and haze scattering processes.

These results provide validation opportunities for exoplanet-focused spectral models and also shed light on how extreme aerosol forward scattering could influence exoplanet observations and interpretations.

Chase A. Cooper, Tyler D. Robinson, Jason W. Barnes, Laura C. Mayorga, Lily Robinthal

Comments: 12 pages, 13 figures; comments welcome
Subjects: Earth and Planetary Astrophysics (astro-ph.EP)
Cite as: arXiv:2507.00924 [astro-ph.EP] (or arXiv:2507.00924v1 [astro-ph.EP] for this version)
https://doi.org/10.48550/arXiv.2507.00924
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Submission history
From: Chase Cooper
[v1] Tue, 1 Jul 2025 16:30:30 UTC (2,394 KB)
https://arxiv.org/abs/2507.00924
Astrobiology,

Explorers Club Fellow, ex-NASA Space Station Payload manager/space biologist, Away Teams, Journalist, Lapsed climber, Synaesthete, Na’Vi-Jedi-Freman-Buddhist-mix, ASL, Devon Island and Everest Base Camp veteran, (he/him) 🖖🏻

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