The Production of Titan's Ultraviolet Nitrogen Airglow

The Cassini Ultraviolet Imaging Spectrograph (UVIS) observed Titan's dayside limb on 22 June, 2009, obtaining high quality extreme ultraviolet (EUV) and far ultraviolet (FUV) spectra from a distance of only 60,000 km (23 Titan radii). The observations reveal the same EUV and FUV emissions arising from photoelectron excitation and photofragmentation of molecular nitrogen (N[SUB]2[/SUB]) on Earth but with the altitude of peak emission much higher on Titan near 1000 km altitude. In the EUV, emission bands from the photoelectron excited N[SUB]2[/SUB] Carroll-Yoshino c[SUB]4[/SUB]'-X system and N I and N II multiplets arising from photofragmentation of N[SUB]2[/SUB] dominate, with no detectable c[SUB]4[/SUB]'(0,0) emission near 958 Å, contrary to many interpretations of the lower resolution Voyager 1 Ultraviolet Spectrometer data. The FUV is dominated by emission bands from the N[SUB]2[/SUB] Lyman-Birge-Hopfield a-X system and additional N I multiplets. We also identify several N[SUB]2[/SUB] Vegard-Kaplan A-X bands between 1500-1900 Å, two of which are located near 1561 and 1657 Å where C I multiplets were previously identified from a separate UVIS disk observation. We compare these limb emissions to predictions from a terrestrial airglow model adapted to Titan that uses a solar spectrum appropriate for these June, 2009 observations. Volume production rates and limb radiances are calculated, including extinction by methane and allowance for multiple scattering within the readily excited c[SUB]4[/SUB]'(0,v') system, and compared to UVIS observations. We find that for these airglow data only emissions arising from processes involving N[SUB]2[/SUB] are present.