Caitlin Griffith

PTYS/LPL Faculty

Caitlin Griffith

Professor
Astrobiology, Exoplanets; Planetary Formation and Evolution, Planetary Astronomy, Planetary Atmospheres, Titan & Outer Solar System
Ph.D., 1991, State University of New York, Stony Brook

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520-626-3806

Kuiper 424

Years with LPL: 2002 to present

Dr. Griffith investigates the chemical, dynamical and thermal structures of planetary atmospheres, using ground-based and spacecraft observations. The data are interpreted with radiative transfer calculations to measure the temperature, composition and dynamical signatures of planetary atmospheres. These results are analyzed with simple chemical, radiative and dynamical models to address questions on atmospheric structure and evolution. Dr. Griffith also works with mathematical methods to analyze large astronomical data bases. This work involves Principal Component Analyses and basic Artificial Intelligence techniques.

Dr. Griffith has worked extensively to understand Titan, Saturn’s largest moon. Titan resembles Earth, as it sports, rain, rivers, storms and seas. However, on Titan, methane plays the role that water plays on Earth. Yet, how Titan evolved to its current state is not understood. The ultraviolet radiation from the Sun irreversibly destroys methane, the by-products of which form a thick atmospheric haze, which ends up as organic sediments on Titan’s surface. There is no obvious source to supply the atmosphere with methane, except from the evaporation of methane from the polar lakes. But the methane in the lakes and Titan’s atmosphere, and will be exhausted in soon by geological time scales. One open question is where does the CH4 come from? Work by Dr. Griffith supports the idea that subsurface methane furnishes Titan's CH4 atmosphere, and thus the organic-rich atmosphere. The communication between the surface and the interior plays a major role on Earth and, likely on Titan. Yet without understanding of the history of Titan, it is not clear whether prolonged production of complex organics, sourced by subterranean reservoirs, are common in cool CH₄-rich exoplanetary atmospheres.

Dr. Griffith also investigates the structures and compositions of giant planets and extrasolar planets. She finds that these efforts are complementary as we can gain much more detailed information on planets in our Solar System, which are not possible for exoplanets.

View LPL Evening Lecture from September 13, 2016, Storms, Lakes & the Methane Cycle on Titan Lure us with Earth-like Qualities to an Exotic World

Former Spacecraft Involvement

Cassini

Current Graduate Students

Kyle Pearson (PTYS)

Former Students

Robert Zellem, 2015 (Ph.D. PTYS)
Johanna Teske, 2014 (Ph.D. Astronomy)
Paulo Penteado, 2009 (Ph.D. PTYS)

Complete publications list available from: NASA ADS Author search: Caitlin A. Griffith

Refereed publications (NASA ADS): Calendar Years 2017 through June 2019

Griffith, C. A., Penteado, P. F., Turner, J. D., Neish, C. D., Mitri, G., Montiel, N. J., Schoenfeld, A., Lopes, R. M. C. A corridor of exposed ice-rich bedrock across Titan's tropical region 2019NatAs.tmp..343G

Waldmann, I. P., Griffith, C. A. Mapping Saturn using deep learning 2019NatAs.tmp..308W

Pearson, K. A., Griffith, C. A., Zellem, R. T., Koskinen, T. T., Roudier, G. M. Ground-based Spectroscopy of the Exoplanet XO-2b Using a Systematic Wavelength Calibration 2019AJ....157...21P

Tinetti, G., Drossart, P., Eccleston, P., Hartogh, P., Heske, A., Leconte, J., Micela, G., Ollivier, M., Pilbratt, G., Puig, L., Turrini, D., Vandenbussche, B., Wolkenberg, P., Beaulieu, J.-P., Buchave, L. A., Ferus, M., Griffin, M., Guedel, M., Justtanont, K., Lagage, P.-O., Machado, P., Malaguti, G., Min, M., Nørgaard-Nielsen, H. U., Rataj, M., Ray, T., Ribas, I., Swain, M., Szabo, R., Werner, S., Barstow, J., Burleigh, M., Cho, J., du Foresto, V. C., Coustenis, A., Decin, L., Encrenaz, T., Galand, M., Gillon, M., Helled, R., Morales, J. C., Muñoz, A. G., Moneti, A., Pagano, I., Pascale, E., Piccioni, G., Pinfield, D., Sarkar, S., Selsis, F., Tennyson, J., Triaud, A., Venot, O., Waldmann, I., Waltham, D., Wright, G., Amiaux, J., Auguères, J.-L., Berthé, M., Bezawada, N., Bishop, G., Bowles, N., Coffey, D., Colomé, J., Crook, M., Crouzet, P.-E., Da Peppo, V., Sanz, I. E., Focardi, M., Frericks, M., Hunt, T., Kohley, R., Middleton, K., Morgante, G., Ottensamer, R., Pace, E., Pearson, C., Stamper, R., Symonds, K., Rengel, M., Renotte, E., Ade, P., Affer, L., Alard, C., Allard, N., Altieri, F., André, Y., Arena, C., Argyriou, I., Aylward, A., Baccani, C., Bakos, G., Banaszkiewicz, M., Barlow, M., Batista, V., Bellucci, G., Benatti, S., Bernardi, P., Bézard, B., Blecka, M., Bolmont, E., Bonfond, B., Bonito, R., Bonomo, A. S., Brucato, J. R., Brun, A. S., Bryson, I., Bujwan, W., Casewell, S., Charnay, B., Pestellini, C. C., Chen, G., Ciaravella, A., Claudi, R., Clédassou, R., Damasso, M., Damiano, M., Danielski, C., Deroo, P., Di Giorgio, A. M., Dominik, C., Doublier, V., Doyle, S., Doyon, R., Drummond, B., Duong, B., Eales, S., Edwards, B., Farina, M., Flaccomio, E., Fletcher, L., Forget, F., Fossey, S., Fränz, M., Fujii, Y., García-Piquer, Á., Gear, W., Geoffray, H., Gérard, J. C., Gesa, L., Gomez, H., Graczyk, R., Griffith, C., Grodent, D., Guarcello, M. G., Gustin, J., Hamano, K., Hargrave, P., Hello, Y., Heng, K., Herrero, E., Hornstrup, A., Hubert, B., Ida, S., Ikoma, M., Iro, N., Irwin, P., Jarchow, C., Jaubert, J., Jones, H., Julien, Q., Kameda, S., Kerschbaum, F., Kervella, P., Koskinen, T., Krijger, M., Krupp, N., Lafarga, M., Landini, F., Lellouch, E., Leto, G., Luntzer, A., Rank-Lüftinger, T., Maggio, A., Maldonado, J., Maillard, J.-P., Mall, U., Marquette, J.-B., Mathis, S., Maxted, P., Matsuo, T., Medvedev, A., Miguel, Y., Minier, V., Morello, G., Mura, A., Narita, N., Nascimbeni, V., Nguyen Tong, N., Noce, V., Oliva, F., Palle, E., Palmer, P., Pancrazzi, M., Papageorgiou, A., Parmentier, V., Perger, M., Petralia, A., Pezzuto, S., Pierrehumbert, R., Pillitteri, I., Piotto, G., Pisano, G., Prisinzano, L., Radioti, A., Réess, J.-M., Rezac, L., Rocchetto, M., Rosich, A., Sanna, N., Santerne, A., Savini, G., Scandariato, G., Sicardy, B., Sierra, C., Sindoni, G., Skup, K., Snellen, I., Sobiecki, M., Soret, L., Sozzetti, A., Stiepen, A., Strugarek, A., Taylor, J., Taylor, W., Terenzi, L., Tessenyi, M., Tsiaras, A., Tucker, C., Valencia, D., Vasisht, G., Vazan, A., Vilardell, F., Vinatier, S., Viti, S., Waters, R., Wawer, P., Wawrzaszek, A., Whitworth, A., Yung, Y. L., Yurchenko, S. N., Osorio, M. R. Z., Zellem, R., Zingales, T., Zwart, F. A chemical survey of exoplanets with ARIEL 2018ExA....46..135T

Rodriguez, S., Le Mouélic, S., Barnes, J. W., Kok, J. F., Rafkin, S. C. R., Lorenz, R. D., Charnay, B., Radebaugh, J., Narteau, C., Cornet, T., Bourgeois, O., Lucas, A., Rannou, P., Griffith, C. A., Coustenis, A., Appéré, T., Hirtzig, M., Sotin, C., Soderblom, J. M., Brown, R. H., Bow, J., Vixie, G., Maltagliati, L., Courrech du Pont, S., Jaumann, R., Stephan, K., Baines, K. H., Buratti, B. J., Clark, R. N., Nicholson, P. D. Observational evidence for active dust storms on Titan at equinox 2018NatGe..11..727R

Pearson, K. A., Palafox, L., Griffith, C. A. Searching for exoplanets using artificial intelligence 2018MNRAS.474..478P

Chapman, J. W., Zellem, R. T., Line, M. R., Vasisht, G., Bryden, G., Willacy, K., Iyer, A. R., Bean, J., Cowan, N. B., Fortney, J. J., Griffith, C. A., Kataria, T., Kempton, E. M.-R., Kreidberg, L., Moses, J. I., Stevenson, K. B., Swain, M. R. Quantifying the Impact of Spectral Coverage on the Retrieval of Molecular Abundances from Exoplanet Transmission Spectra 2017PASP..129j4402C

Researchers Find Ice Feature on Saturn’s Giant Moon - April 29, 2019
What Deep Learning Reveals About Saturn’s Storms - April 29, 2019

Available files	Size	Created
CV-Griffith-2017.pdf	179.94 KB	December 13, 2018

Semester	Course	Resources
Spring 2021	PTYS 517-001
Fall 2020	PTYS 521 -001
Fall 2016	PTYS 656A-001	Course Page

Last updated on September 10, 2019

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