Simulating Titan's tropospheric circulation with the portable university model of the atmosphere

The Portable University Model of the Atmosphere (PUMA) is a general circulation model of intermediate complexity. In the model setup used herein, the dynamics is driven by restoration to a prescribed temperature field. Given an observed three-dimensional field of restoration temperatures, the feedback of aerosol distribution to the radiation scheme and hence to the dynamics is excluded from calculations. PUMA is adapted to Titan conditions and used to carry out a series of experiments with temperature fields based on radio occultation and infrared spectroscopy measurements taken by Voyager 1 in 1980. The resultant winds are pro-grade with maximum wind speeds of about 14 m/s in the troposphere. This simulation demonstrates capabilities of a restricted complexity model and provides a contribution to the prediction of the descent trajectory of the Huygens lander in January 2005. (C) 2004 Published by Elsevier Ltd on behalf of COSPAR.