Karzai woos India to invest in Afghanistan

Afghan President Hamid Karzai has a word with Union Minister of Commerce, Industry and Textiles Anand Sharma during a business meeting in Mumbai 

Afghanistan is lucrative and safe for investment

Afghanistan President Hamid Karzai has urged Indian businessmen to hurry up to grab investment opportunities in his country and said Afghanistan was ripe and ready to accept investment in mining and other sectors.

“Afghanistan is the richest in mineral resources. The media reported it is worth $3 trillion but we have higher figures. What The New York Times reported is the tip of the iceberg. India is well positioned to take advantage,” Mr. Karzai told members of CII, FICCI and Assocham in Mumbai.

Mr. Karzai, leading a high-level delegation, was in Mumbai to assure Indian business leaders that Afghanistan was lucrative and safe for investment.

“Indian oil and gas companies are talking to invest. Other industry should look at other mineral resources. Indian businessmen need not shy away. The Chinese came five to six years before you and they have already got two or three major contracts. You are closer by all means and you should come in large numbers,” Mr. Karzai said.

“The competition [to invest in Afghanistan] is strong. Now even Western companies are coming in large numbers. But we want to welcome you with a red carpet while others will get a grey carpet. But you need to come and walk on that red carpet. Do hurry up and take advantage of Afghanistan. Traditionally India is not a donor country but it committed $2 billion to us. It is moral obligation and gratitude that binds us” the Afghan President said.

Union Commerce Minister Anand Sharma said India committed to provide assistance to Afghanistan in infrastructure development, power generation and building capacities in health and education.

CII president Adi Godrej said: “Our government and the industry view Afghanistan as a key ally. We will keep your red carpet busy.”

He outlined a 5 point agenda to strengthen the traditional bonds between two countries.

Karzai wants India to grab Afghan mining opportunities

Manmohan agrees on the need for deepening economic engagement

India has moved forward in its quest for sourcing mineral resources from its neighbourhood with Afghan President Hamid Karzai asking Prime Minister Manmohan Singh to encourage a more aggressive approach, such as the one employed by the consortium led by the Steel Authority of India Limited (SAIL), which is about to finalise the contract for four out of five blocks in Asia’s biggest untapped iron ore deposits.

During his meeting with Mr. Karzai here on Monday, Dr. Singh said he agreed on the need for deepening economic engagement in areas ranging from agriculture and small businesses to mining and infrastructure.

The two leaders were meeting days after India, the United States and Japan agreed to join hands in promoting economic development in Afghanistan.

More importantly, it will be followed by an India-U.S.-Afghanistan trilateral, unusually close on the heels of the first one held in September in New York.

The two sides also discussed security and regional issues. Officials said training of Afghan soldiers, being undertaken on a “modest” scale by Indian military institutions, figured in the conversation.

Official sources wanted the economic aspect of the visit to be viewed in the larger context too. After having been made to wait on the sidelines earlier, India is now involved in efforts to bring investors to Afghanistan, they pointed out.

On Sunday, addressing businesspersons in Mumbai, the Afghan President had said his country was more or less safe and drew their attention to the large presence of entrepreneurs in Kabul from several countries, including China.

“We would like to welcome you on a red carpet and others on a grey carpet. But you need to arrive on the red carpet. If you don’t arrive on the red carpet, it will get dusty. Therefore, do hurry up and take advantage of the opportunities in Afghanistan,” he had said.

In all, the two sides signed four pacts, including one on cooperation in development of coal and mineral resources and Indian aid for implementation of small development projects. India’s development assistance commitment to Afghanistan currently stands at about $2 billion and with the signing of an MoU, India will launch the third phase of small development projects to address the socio-economic needs of people throughout Afghanistan.

“Generous partner”

Mr. Karzai thanked India for being “a very generous frontline partner and supporter to Afghanistan’s reconstruction and development. India has strived with us for the hard-earned income of its people and the difficult walk that we had for development and reconstruction.”

From refugee to healer — the story of Sima Samar

Prominent Afghan rights activist is worried about the lack of rule of law

The former Afghanistan Vice-President and Women’s Affairs Minister, Sima Samar, laments the lack of rule of law in her country. At the same time, she is optimistic about the progress it has made after many years of war.

Dr. Samar, who obtained her degree in medicine from Kabul University in February 1982, is in the city to receive the fifth Mother Teresa Memorial International Awards for Social Justice from the Harmony Foundation on Wednesday.

She was a refugee in Pakistan from 1984 to 2001, before becoming one of the few prominent women politicians in Afghanistan. Now, Dr. Samar is chairperson of the Afghan Independent Human Rights Commission (AIHRC).

“The biggest challenge for us today is the lack of security … It limits access to everything, including health, housing, freedom of movement and expression,” Dr. Samar said in an interview to The Hinduon Tuesday.

Apart from the lack of rule of law, there is every kind of violation. “The third biggest challenge before the AIHRC is the lack of awareness of rights among the people, who can’t defend their rights or respect the rights of others. Poverty is another big issue as it violates the rights to basic shelter, adequate food and housing.”

She was made Vice-President in the Hamid Karzai-led interim government and then Minister for Women’s Affairs. But she was kicked out after six months. There were just two women in the a council of 30 ministers. “We were just getting out of the Taliban rule, and it was a difficult situation. The council practically denied our existence, if that’s possible,” she says.

At a time when the government favoured amnesty for war crimes, her strong sense of justice ensured that she had a short tenure as deputy head of government. “I was asking for an end to the culture of impunity and calling for justice.”

She opened a clinic in Pakistan for Afghan refugee women. Even now, there is a huge lack of access to proper health care in Afghanistan. The flights from Kabul to India are full of people seeking quality health care.

The AIHRC has 14 offices nationwide. It has different departments and pays special attention to human rights education in school curriculum. It holds workshops for the army, prosecutors and judges. It also brings out many publications, including a monthly magazine which is distributed free. It tries to make laws more friendly to women and works closely with shelters to protect women in need. Earlier, Afghanistan did not have a law on child trafficking, but now it has a legal framework to punish offenders.

Dr. Samar said the AIHRC did a lot of research on women and child rights and child labourers, who are many in Afghanistan. “They are the breadwinners of families since they have lost their parents in the long drawn-out wars, and we cannot ban it [child labour]. However, we are demanding better regulation, working conditions and access to education.”

She witnessed the strife in Sudan as the United Nations special rapporteur on human rights and is dismayed by what she saw and experienced. More worrying is the plight of the people with disability and polio, a disease which Afghanistan is yet to eradicate. The AIHRC has powers to monitor and investigate cases and has a special investigative team. It expends transitional justice and believes in the acknowledgement of suffering to heal the wounds and reconciliation in keeping with Islamic or cultural laws.

The AIHRC has documented war crimes since 1978 and even named people, but the report is yet to be submitted to the government. The Afghan Parliament did announce a general amnesty for war crimes but people are bent on taking revenge. Over three decades of war and strife have destroyed the country, but there has been some achievement in the past few years. “We could have done much more but we now have eight million children in school and there is better access to education and health care, though quality is poor. Especially for women, there are few women doctors, and families don’t take girls to the doctors,” she says.

The future of any country depends on the leadership and the involvement of the public. “You can’t buy that,” she remarks. “It is a process. We will also be able to move ahead.” Like others, she is not supportive of the presence of U.S. forces in Afghanistan and says no foreign force should stay in a country for too long.

She is sure that the Taliban will not come back. “The people have already experienced the Taliban once and know [their] mentality. Especially, the young people and the women are able to exercise their rights now. We had one TV [channel] when the Taliban took over; now we have 30-40 TV channels, over 400 radio stations, and there are a lot of changes. Taliban supporters are politically and financially weakened.”

The media is also emerging as a critical and powerful force. Parliament has a 25 per cent quota for women, and women are gaining ground in the public sphere. “These are the same women who were virtually under house arrest earlier; there is a big change now.”

Afghan politicians struggle to script 2014 transition

      Even as the first snow of the winter falls on the Hindu Kush mountains, Afghan President Hamid Karzai’s opponents are huddled together in Kabul to shape the course of the 2014 presidential election, the last that will be held before western troops leave the country. 

Late last month, Afghan President Hamid Karzai received the blueprints for a new home he hopes to occupy in 2014, vacating his official residence at the Arg — the royal citadel built in 1880 after British troops levelled the historic Bala Hisar Fort. There appears to a blueprint for little else concerning the country’s looming political transition, though — least of all the critical question of who might move into the Arg once Mr. Karzai leaves.

Even as the first snow of the winter falls on the Hindu Kush mountains, Mr. Karzai’s opponents are huddled together in Kabul to shape the course of the 2014 presidential election, the last that will be held before western troops leave the country.

They are facing up to a bizarre reality: the next President may be picked to represent Afghans who don’t vote — not those who do.

“For all of us,” says key Opposition leader Abdullah Abdullah, “the challenge is to ensure the integrity of the political system and the legitimacy of government after 2014. That will be the key to Afghanistan’s future.”

The princes-apparent

Leading the race to represent Afghanistan’s southern Pashtun tribes in the Arg are two men who cut their political teeth trying to kill each other: Muhammad Umar Daudzai, now Afghanistan’s Ambassador to Pakistan, and Hanif Atmar, Mr. Karzai’s former Interior Minister.

Mr. Daudzai was a member of the Hizb-e Islami militia of Islamist warlord Gulbuddin Hekmatyar, elements of which still battle the government. Mr. Atmar lost his leg fighting the Hizb-e Islami during the savage 1987 battle of Jalalabad when he was serving in Afghanistan’s communist-era intelligence service, the Khidmat-e Etelaat-e Dawlati.

For both men, their élite ethnic-Pashtun credentials are key. Even though an estimated 48 per cent of Afghanistan’s population now lives in its relatively secure cities, few are likely to vote in the insurgency-hit southern and eastern countryside. In 2009, voter turnout was independently estimated at just 30 per cent; this time around, it will almost certainly be lower.

Ensuring the new President enjoys nationwide legitimacy means picking a candidate who speaks for ethnic-Pashtun dominated southern and eastern Afghanistan.

The former Afghan Foreign Minister, Abdullah, who picked up 31.8 per cent of the vote to Mr. Karzai’s 47.48 in the 2009 elections, leads arguably the most powerful of these northern formations. Backed by key Opposition ideologue Yunus Qanuni, Mr. Abdullah represents the most visible political face of the pre-9/11 anti-Taliban resistance.

There are other influential contenders. Ahmad Zia Masood, brother of anti-Taliban commander Ahmad Shah Masood, in alliance with the Uzbek warlord Abdul Rashid Dostum, has a powerful rival block. The cerebral former Afghan intelligence chief, Amrullah Saleh, constitutes a third pole.

Ethnic Hazaras, a traditionally underprivileged community who have leveraged post-9/11 aid to emerge as one of Afghanistan’s most dynamic and educated communities, will also play a key role. Hazara leaders like Muhammad Mohaqiq —whose predecessor Abdul Ali Mazari was stripped, mutilated and dropped to his death from a helicopter by the Taliban in 1995 — have been bitterly critical of Mr. Karzai’s efforts to seek peace with the Pakistan-based jihadist group.

Mr. Daudzai, Mr. Karzai’s former chief of staff, hopes his Hizb-e Islami connections will help him position himself as a buffer between the Taliban and the north. He has also, sources in the President’s staff say, received informal assurances from both Pakistan and Iran of their support for his candidacy. In 2010, The New York Times alleged that he was the manager of an Iran-funded slush fund for Mr. Karzai, which was used to bribe “Afghan lawmakers, tribal elders and even Taliban commanders to secure their loyalty.”

Mr. Atmar, who was Interior Minister until he was sacked by Mr. Karzai in 2010, also hopes his anti-Taliban credentials will make him acceptable to the powerful political groupings of the north.

Other hopefuls

A welter of second-string candidates hopes to cash in if these two heavyweights fail. The former United States Ambassador to Afghanistan, Zalmay Khalilzad, and scholars Ashraf Ghani and Ali Jalali are exploring the possibility of securing opposition backing for a presidential bid. So is Mr. Karzai’s brother, Abdul Qayyum Karzai.

Last week, Mr. Karzai initiated meetings intended to hammer out the terms of the political transition. Mr. Abdullah Abdullah led a delegation of 21 parties — five of them in government — to seek guarantees of a fair election. Mr. Ahmad Zia Masood, held a similar dialogue.

“No one knows just where the pieces are going to fall,” a senior Afghan politician told The Hindu, “but for the first time since 9/11, a serious dialogue between political actors inside the country has begun. We can only hope all of us show the wisdom that is needed to go forward.”

Karzai bets all on elusive talks with Taliban

Though Afghanistan-Pakistan talks hold out ray of hope as 2014 guillotine looms, many remain sceptical of peace with Taliban

Last week, Afghan Foreign Minister Zalmai Rasool and his Pakistani counterpart, Hina Rabbani Khar, shook hands on a deal diplomats across the world are hoping will pave the way for a peace agreement with the Taliban before 2014 — the year tens of thousands of the United States troops will return home, potentially plunging the world’s most war-torn country into chaos.

The Taliban prisoners Pakistan promised to release on Friday are chips in President Hamid Karzai’s high-stakes gamble that he can persuade the released jihadist adversaries to come to the negotiating table — thus dividing the insurgency and forcing its leadership to reconcile.

Less than four months ago, Afghan and Pakistani forces were exchanging artillery fire across their border, sparked by infiltrating Taliban groups. Though some sunshine now appears to have broken through the winter gloom, it remains unclear if the rays of hope will survive the storm clouds that have started gathering.

Promises, not progress

For one, the progress so far hasn’t matched the promises. In November, Salahuddin Rabbani — head of Afghanistan’s Higher Peace Council — first received a commitment to release Taliban prisoners, leading Mr. Karzai’s government to exult.

Kabul, government sources told The Hindu, asked for 31 Taliban commanders living in Pakistan under the protection of the Inter-Services Intelligence Directorate. Just nine have so far been released — and none have moved to Afghanistan.

“In essence,” a senior Afghan official told The Hindu, “Islamabad is telling us that its willing to let the peace kite fly — but only if we accept that its hand will hold and guide the string.”

None of the released commanders, moreover, figure on the United Nations list of sanctioned Taliban leaders, suggesting that their organisational influence is minimal. The senior-most, Anwar-ul-Haq Mujahed, son of anti-communist jihadist leader Yunus Khales, belongs to the Hizb-e Islami — not the Taliban itself.

Kabul hopes the Foreign Ministers’ meeting will secure the release of Abdul Ahad Jehangirwal, who served in the Taliban-ruled Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan’s administrative office, along with its chief negotiator in Doha, Tayyeb Agha. It is also seeking the Islamic Emirate justice minister, Nooruddin Turabi.

There has been no progress, notably, in securing the release of Abdul Gani Baradar — a ranking Taliban commander thought to be close to Taliban chief Mullah Muhammad Omar.

Islamabad, the government sources said, recently arranged a meeting between Afghanistan’s Ambassador, Muhammad Omar Daudzai, and Mr. Baradar — but in the face of strenuous objections from the Taliban leader that it would make him vulnerable to threats from hardliners. Agha Jan Motasim, another senior Taliban commander, only narrowly survived an August 2010 assassination attempt under similar circumstances.

In the event, news of Mr. Baradar’s meeting leaked — leading him to refuse all further face-to-face contact with Afghan negotiators.

Growing resistance

Experts aren’t persuaded that even such meetings with the top Taliban leadership will make a peace deal work.

In one recent case, resistance from field commanders forced Mullah Omar to reduce the authority of Mullah Abdul Qayyum Zakir, his hand-picked choice as commander of Taliban operations inside Afghanistan.

“Frankly,” says Kabul-based analyst Omar Sharifi, “most of the Taliban leadership in Pakistan has long outlived its sell-by date. These are mostly ageing figures, for all practical purposes retired, with little or no influence on the ground.”

Local militias have also been forming in areas under Taliban control — taking arms against the very organisation the government is seeking to make peace with.

In May, after Taliban shut down government-run schools, along with medical facilities and the local bazaar in Andar province, local residents killed dozens of jihadists and retook control of over 50 villages. Similar anti-Taliban uprisings have taken place in Kunar, Logar, Laghman, Paktika and Nangarhar provinces.

Fearing a resurgent Taliban, moreover, Afghanistan’s old warlords seem to be preparing for war. In an extraordinary November 1 speech, Minister for Water Resources and Energy Ismail Khan even issued an extraordinary call for the country’s warlords to rearm in preparation for a renewed Taliban assault.

The West, Mr. Khan said, “collected all our weapons, our artillery and tanks, and put them on the rubbish heap.” “Instead,” he said, mocking the western soldiers who arrived after 9/11, “they brought Dutch girls, French girls, girls from Holland, they armed American girls.” “They thought that by doing all this they would bring security here but they failed.”

Last month, Mr. Karzai asked Opposition leaders how they would react to a pre-election deal. “We replied,” says the leading Opposition politician and former Foreign Minister, Abdullah Abdullah, “that this would mean the Taliban disarming, starting a political party and accepting that the Constitution could only be changed to accommodate their demands if they won an election. That would be a political earthquake — and well, if earthquakes strike, you deal with them.”

Israel faces flak over expansion plans

The West Bank settlement of Ma'aleh Adumim with the E1 area in the background.

Israel’s decision to build new homes near occupied East Jerusalem is evoking an unexpectedly strong response in Europe-with Britain and France considering withdrawal of their ambassadors from Tel Aviv in protest.

Reuters quoting a diplomatic source is reporting that Britain would finalise its decision on pulling out its envoy from Israel later on Monday. London is miffed about Israel’s decision to green-light construction, as it may have been taken to punish the Palestinians for successfully securing observer status at the United Nations General Assembly. A statement by the British embassy in Tel Aviv said, “The recent Israeli government decision to build 3,000 new housing units threatens the two-state solution and makes progress through negotiations harder to achieve”. It added that Britain has “called on the Israeli government to reconsider” its decision.

Israeli daily Haaretz is reporting that France, a fellow European Union (EU) member is also considering the recall of its ambassador from Israel, and is working together with Britain on a number of punitive steps.

The foreign policy chief of the EU, Catherine Ashton also urged Israel not expand construction activity in accordance with its new plan.

On Friday, Israeli government officials unveiled a plan to build 3,000 new settlement units in the so-called E-1 area that bisects the occupied West Bank. The decision was announced a day after Palestine was admitted to the U.N. as a non-member state.

In case Israel went ahead with the construction, it would disrupt the contiguity of West Bank with East Jerusalem, thus destroying the viability of a two state solution, premised on the emergence of an independent Palestine in the occupied territories, cohabiting peacefully with Israel.

Normally mild mannered, an infuriated Ban Ki-moon, the U.N. Secretary-General, slammed the Israeli move. “It would represent an almost fatal blow to remaining chances of securing a two-state solution,” said Mr. Ban. He added that the new settlements would completely cut off Palestinians in East Jerusalem from the rest of the West Bank.

The Israeli decision on settlements was followed up by Tel Aviv’s move to deprive Palestinians of around $100 million, collected by way of taxes on behalf of the Palestinian Authority. The Israelis say that this money would go the Israeli Electric Corporation as part payment for a $ 200 million debt that the Palestinians owe. Under the terms of past agreements, Israel collects certain taxes on behalf of the Palestinian Authority, before they are transferred.

Israeli Prime Minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, has so far dismissed the avalanche of international criticism against his plans. “We will carry on building in Jerusalem and in all the places that are on the map of Israel’s strategic interests,” he said on Sunday during a weekly Cabinet meeting.

Join NPT without further delay, UN tells Israel

The U.N. General Assembly overwhelmingly approved a resolution Monday calling on Israel to quickly open its nuclear program for inspection and backing a high-level conference to ban nuclear weapons from the Middle East which was just cancelled.

All the Arab nations and Iran had planned to attend the conference in mid-December in Helsinki, Finland, but the United States announced on Nov. 23 that it wouldn’t take place, citing political turmoil in the region and Iran’s defiant stance on nonproliferation. Iran and some Arab nations countered that the real reason for the cancellation was Israel’s refusal to attend.

The resolution, approved by a vote of 174-6 with 6 abstentions, calls on Israel to join the Nuclear Nonproliferation Treaty “without further delay” and open its nuclear facilities to inspection by the International Atomic Energy Agency. Those voting “no” were Israel, the U.S., Canada, Marshall Islands, Micronesia and Palau.

Resolutions adopted by the 193-member General Assembly are not legally binding but they do reflect world opinion and carry moral and political weight.

Israel refuses to confirm or deny it has nuclear bombs though it is widely believed to have a nuclear arsenal. It has refused to join the Nuclear Nonproliferation Treaty, or NPT, along with three nuclear weapon states India, Pakistan and North Korea.

The Arab proposal to create a weapons-of-mass-destruction-free zone in the Mideast, and to pressure Israel to give up its undeclared arsenal of perhaps 80 nuclear warheads, was endorsed at an NPT conference in 1995 but never acted on. In 2010, the 189 parties to the 1970 treaty called for convening a conference in 2012 on the establishment of a WMD-free zone in the Middle East.

The resolution, which was approved by the assembly’s disarmament committee before the conference was cancelled, noted the decision to hold it “with satisfaction.”

But Israel has long said there first must be a Mideast peace agreement before the establishment of a Mideast zone free of weapons of mass destruction. The region’s Muslim nations argue that Israel’s undeclared nuclear arsenal presents the greatest threat to peace in the region.

Just before Monday’s vote, Iranian diplomat Khodadad Seifi told the assembly “the truth is that the Israeli regime is the only party which rejected to conditions for a conference.” He called for “strong pressure on that regime to participate in the conference without any preconditions.”

Israeli diplomat Isi Yanouka said his country has continuously pointed to the danger of nuclear proliferation in the Mideast, singling out Iran and Syria by name.

“All these cases challenge Israel’s security and cast a dark shadow at the prospect of embarking on a meaningful regional security process,” he said.

“The fact that the sponsors include in this anti-Israeli resolution language referring to the 2012 conference proves above all the ill-intent of the Arab states with regard to this conference,” Yanouka said.

Syrian diplomat Abdullah Hallak told the assembly his government was angry that the conference wasn’t going to take place because of “the whim of just one party, a party with nuclear warheads.”

“We call on the international community to put pressure on Israel to accept the NPT, get rid of its arsenal and delivery systems, in order to allow for peace and stability in our region,” he said.

The conference’s main sponsors are the U.S., Russia and Britain. British Foreign Office Minister Alistair Burt has said it is being postponed, not cancelled.

While the United States voted against the resolution, it voted in favor of two paragraphs in it that were put to separate votes. Both support universal adherence to the NPT, and call on those countries that aren’t parties to ratify it “at the earliest date.” The only “no” votes on those paragraphs were Israel and India.

Palestinians condemn Israeli settlements

The Palestinians are condemning Israel for announcing plans for new settlement construction immediately after the U.N. recognised the state of Palestine and are demanding urgent international action to stop what he called “this latest Israeli provocation.”

Palestinian envoy Riyad Mansour said in letters sent late Monday to the secretary-general, Security Council and General Assembly that at the same time that Palestinian leaders reaffirmed their readiness to resume peace negotiations, “Israel continues to flagrantly pursue its illegal policies and practices.”

Sri Lankan CJ appears again before impeachment panel

Sri Lanka’s chief justice has appeared before a Parliamentary committee for a second time to answer impeachment charges amid protests supporting and opposing her.

Thousands of government-supporters called for Shirani Bandaranayake’s resignation as she left the court complex on Tuesday. Lawyers and religious leaders greeted her.

The government has accused Ms. Bandaranayake of misusing power and having unexplained wealth. She denies any wrongdoing.

Opposition parties and independent analysts say the impeachment attempt is aimed at stifling judiciary independence and concentrating power with President Mahinda Rajapaksa.

NASA’s Cassini finds evidence of sinking air on Titan

Washington: NASA’s Cassini spacecraft have detected abrupt turn in Titan’s atmosphere. 

Data from the spacecraft tie a shift in seasonal sunlight to a wholesale reversal, at unexpected altitudes, in the circulation of the atmosphere of Saturn’s moon. 

At the south pole, the data show definitive evidence for sinking air where it was upwelling earlier in the mission. So the key to circulation in the atmosphere of Saturn’s moon Titan turned out to be a certain slant of light. 

“Cassini’s up-close observations are likely the only ones we’ll have in our lifetime of a transition like this in action,” said Nick Teanby, the study’s lead author who is based at the University of Bristol, England, and is a Cassini team associate. 

“It’s extremely exciting to see such rapid changes on a body that usually changes so slowly and has a ‘year’ that is the equivalent of nearly 30 Earth years,” he stated. 

In our solar system, only Earth, Venus, Mars and Titan have both a solid surface and a substantial atmosphere -- providing natural laboratories for exploring climate processes. 

“Understanding Titan’s atmosphere gives us clues for understanding our own complex atmosphere. Some of the complexity in both places arises from the interplay of atmospheric circulation and chemistry,” said Scott Edgington, Cassini deputy project scientist at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, Calif. 

The pole on Titan that is experiencing winter is typically pointed away from Earth due to orbital geometry. Because Cassini has been in orbit around Saturn since 2004, it has been able to study the moon from angles impossible from Earth and watch changes develop over time. Models have predicted circulation changes for nearly 20 years, but Cassini has finally directly observed them happening -- marking a major milestone in the mission. 

Other Cassini instruments recently obtained images of the formation of haze and a vortex over Titan’s south pole, but the data from the composite infrared spectrometer (CIRS) is sensitive to much higher altitudes, provides more quantitative information and more directly probes the circulation and chemistry. The CIRS data, which enable scientists to track changes in atmospheric temperature and the distribution of gases like benzene and hydrogen cyanide, also revealed changes in hard-to-detect vertical winds and global circulation. 

Besides the evidence for sinking air, Cassini also detected complex chemical production in the atmosphere at up to 400 miles (600 kilometers) above the surface, revealing the atmospheric circulation extends about 60 miles (100 kilometers) higher than previously expected. 

Compression of this sinking air as it moved to lower altitudes produced a hot spot hovering high above the south pole, the first indication of big changes to come. The scientists were also able to see very rapid changes in the atmosphere and pinpoint the circulation reversal to about six months around the August 2009 equinox, when the Sun shone directly over Titan’s equator. 

The circulation change meant that within two years of equinox, some gases had increased in abundance 100-fold -- much more extreme than anything seen so far on Titan. 

The results also suggest that a detached layer of haze (first detected by NASA’s Voyager spacecraft) may not be so detached after all, since complex chemistry and vertical atmospheric movement is occurring above this layer. This layer may instead be the region where small haze particles combine into larger, but more transparent, clumped aggregates that eventually descend deeper into the atmosphere and give Titan its characteristic orange appearance. 

“Next, we would expect to see the vortex over the south pole build up,” said Mike Flasar, the CIRS principal investigator at NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Md. 

“As that happens, one question is whether the south winter pole will be the identical twin of the north winter pole, or will it have a distinct personality? The most important thing is to be able to keep watching as these changes happen,” he added. 

The paper has been published in the journal Nature.