The global energy balance of Titan

The global energy budget of planets and their moons is a critical factor to influence the climate change on these objects. Here we report the first measurement of the global emitted power of Titan. Long-term (2004-2010) observations conducted by the Composite Infrared Spectrometer (CIRS) onboard Cassini reveal that the total emitted power by Titan is (2.84 +/- 0.01) x 10(14) watts. Together with previous measurements of the global absorbed solar power of Titan, the CIRS measurements indicate that the global energy budget of Titan is in equilibrium within measurement error. The uncertainty in the absorbed solar energy places an upper limit on the energy imbalance of 6.0%. Citation: Li, L., et al. (2011), The global energy balance of Titan, Geophys. Res. Lett., 38, L23201, doi: 10.1029/2011GL050053.