Abstract
MEASURED brightness temperatures of Titan in the 8 to 14 µm range are too high to be produced by simple equilibrium with solar radiation, but at 20 µm the temperature is more in line with the equilibrium value1,2. An atmospheric “greenhouse” has been invoked to explain these observations, but the amount of hydrogen required to provide the appropriate infrared opacity is much larger than the observed value3,4. Models including large amounts of helium and methane have been considered by Pollack5; Hunten6 has suggested nitrogen as a possible opacity enhancing agent.
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CESS, R., OWEN, T. Effect of Noble Gases on an Atmospheric Greenhouse (Titan). Nature 244, 272–273 (1973). https://doi.org/10.1038/244272a0
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/244272a0
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