Electromagnetic models and inversion techniques for Titan’s Ontario Lacus depth estimation from Cassini RADAR data

Since 2004, Cassini RADAR, operating at 13.8 GHz as a radiometer, scatterometer, altimeter and synthetic aperture radar (SAR), provides a vast amount of data, suggesting new scenarios for Titan’s morphology and evolution. An important result was the detection of lakes constituted by liquid hydrocarbons, thus supporting the hypothesis of a methane and ethane cycle similar to water cycle on Earth. In 2007 Ontario Lacus, a 200 km × 70 km lake, was detected near the South pole. To date Ontario is the only large liquid area sensed by Cassini RADAR in the southern hemisphere of Titan. s work, we analyze the SAR data using two different electromagnetic modeling approaches to retrieve the optical thickness parameter of the liquid hydrocarbon layer. A physically-based model, IEM combined with a gravity capillary wave spectra and integrated into a Bayesian statistical inversion is compared with a semi-empirical model also based on a double-layer description. We consider the impact of the dielectric constant of the surface constituents, as well as wind speed and wave motion scenarios, on the retrieved optical thickness, and by extension, the lake depth and volume estimation. Wind speed can be constrained below 0.7 m/s, in good agreement with the forecasts of Global Circulation Models on Titan. Lake depths estimates depend on the hypotheses on wind speed and loss tangent of the liquid. The average depth lake estimates obtained with the physically based approach range from 2.7 and 8.3 m, with the 95% of the lake area not exceeding 30 m depth. The semiempirical model results confirm this interval, also considering the hypothesis of a low reflectivity lake bed: this would imply lower depth, with a significant part of the lake area not liquid-filled at the present.