Wind driven capillary-gravity waves on Titan’s lakes: Hard to detect or non-existent?

•We model initial wave generation on Titan’s hydrocarbon lakes and seas.•The effects of gravity, density, viscosity, and surface tension are quantified.•The threshold wind (at 10m) for wave generation in liquid ethane on Titan is 0.6m/s.•A two-scale model is constructed to predict radar backscatter of wind-waves on Titan.•Winds may exceed the min. threshold for exciting waves during Titan’s Spring/Summer. Saturn’s moon Titan has lakes and seas of liquid hydrocarbon and a dense atmosphere, an environment conducive to generating wind waves. Cassini observations thus far, however, show no indication of waves. We apply models for wind wave generation and detection to the Titan environment. Results suggest wind speed thresholds at a reference altitude of 10m of 0.4–0.7m/s for liquid compositions varying between pure methane and equilibrium mixtures with the atmosphere (ethane has a threshold of 0.6m/s), varying primarily with liquid viscosity. This reduced threshold, as compared to Earth, results from Titan’s increased atmosphere-to-liquid density ratio, reduced gravity and lower surface tension. General Circulation Models (GCMs) predict wind speeds below derived thresholds near equinox, when available observations of lake surfaces have been acquired. Predicted increases in winds as Titan approaches summer solstice, however, will exceed expected thresholds and may provide constraints on lake composition and/or GCM accuracy through the presence or absence of waves during the Cassini Solstice Mission. A two-scale microwave backscatter model suggests that returns from wave-modified liquid hydrocarbon surfaces may be below the pixel-scale noise floor of Cassini radar images, but can be detectable using real-aperture scatterometry, pixel binning and/or observations obtained in a specular geometry.