Published online by Cambridge University Press: 05 January 2014
8.1 Introduction
This chapter summarizes what is known about Titan's extensive photochemical haze, which extends from the surface to about 1000 km altitude. The haze determines the appearance of the moon across a broad spectral range. It dominates the opacity short of 5 μm and it also affects the radiation transfer in the thermal IR. Thus, haze plays a major role in Titan's radiative energy budget. It is also a sink for gas phase photochemistry and a source of surface material, and the haze has much to tell us about atmospheric dynamics.
A great deal has already been written about Titan's haze, summarized most recently by both Tomasko and West (2009) and Lorenz et al. (2009). In this chapter we briefly review the key attributes of the haze determined from in situ measurements made by the Descent Imager/Spectral Radiometer (DISR) instrument and then focus on developments more recent than those reviewed by Tomasko and West (2009). These developments include new observations and analyses, laboratory investigations relevant to the haze's physical characteristics (size, shape, and density), its chemical composition and optical properties, and microphysical model studies that simulate the interaction of haze with the gas phase background and the impact of haze in the radiative energy budget and the atmospheric dynamics.
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