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1.
We propose a mechanism for the oxidation of gaseous CO into CO2 occurring on the surface mineral hematite (Fe2O3(s)) in hot, CO2-rich planetary atmospheres, such as Venus. This mechanism is likely to constitute an important source of tropospheric CO2 on Venus and could at least partly address the CO2 stability problem in Venus’ stratosphere, since our results suggest that atmospheric CO2 is produced from CO oxidation via surface hematite at a rate of 0.4 petagrammes (Pg) CO2 per (Earth) year on Venus which is about 45% of the mass loss of CO2 via photolysis in the Venusian stratosphere. We also investigated CO oxidation via the hematite mechanism for a range of planetary scenarios and found that modern Earth and Mars are probably too cold for the mechanism to be important because the rate-limiting step, involving CO(g) reacting onto the hematite surface, proceeds much slower at lower temperatures. The mechanism may feature on extrasolar planets such as Gliese 581c or CoRoT-7b assuming they can maintain solid surface hematite which, e.g. starts to melt above about 1200 K. The mechanism may also be important for hot Hadean-type environments and for the emerging class of hot Super-Earths with planetary surface temperatures between about 600 and 900 K.  相似文献   

2.
The present small amount of water in the atmosphere of Venus, in connection with the estimated short time scale of water loss from this planet, has lead to the hypothesis that the water concentration in the Venusian atmosphere is in a dynamical equilibrium, where the losses are counter-balanced by a suitable water source. The main candidate water sources are: (a) outgassing from the Venusian surface, due to volcanic activity and (b) cometary impacts. The lack of observational evidence of cometary impacts is usually attributed either to the rarity of such events or to the fact that presently their observational signature is not well understood. In this paper we report on a photographic evidence of a short duration dark feature on Venus, which was observed on 18 May 1988. After eliminating the possibilities of a film defect and an interference from an artificial Earth satellite or an interplanetary object, we conclude that this feature was the signature of an event that took place on the upper haze layer of the Venusian atmosphere. We propose that this event was actually the impact of a small (~1010 gr) comet-like object, consisting mainly of water, on Venus. This impact caused the temporary evaporation ot the sol H2SO4 particles of the upper haze layer and, consequently, a decrease of the albedo of the region around the point of entrance of the comet in the Venusian cloud layers. This region of lower albedo appears as a dark feature in the reported photograph. Our model accounts for the short duration of the feature as well as for its shape.  相似文献   

3.
4.
A. Bar-nun 《Icarus》1980,42(3):338-342
The effects of the newly discovered thunderstorms on Venus upon the nitrogen and carbon species in its atmosphere were calculated. An Earth-like lightning frequency of 100 sec?1 was used for Venus, in accord with recent optical measurements by Pioneer-Venus (W. J. Borucki, J. W. Dyer, G. Z. Thomas, J. C. Jordon, and D. A. Comstock, submitted for publication). The rate of NO production by thunder shock waves, 2.5 × 1011 g year?1, is about an order of magnitude smaller than on the Earth. But on Venus, in the absence of precipitation, which is the major removal mechanism of odd nitrogen from the Earth's atmosphere, the mixing ratios of odd nitrogen species might be considerably higher. The global CO production is governed by CO2 photolysis rather than by CO2 pyrolysis by lightning. However, thunderstorms produce about 2.5 × 1011 g year?1 of CO in the cloud layer, far from the high altitude CO2 photolysis region.  相似文献   

5.
J.T. Trauger  J.I. Lunine 《Icarus》1983,55(2):272-281
The abundances of molecular oxygen in the atmospheres of Venus and Mars are sensitive to fundamental photochemical processes. A new upper limit is reported for the molecular oxygen mixing ratio (O2/CO2 < × 10?7) in the integrated column above the visible cloud tops of Venus, based on spectroscopic observations carried out in early spring, 1982. During the same observing period, an O2 column abundance of 8.5 cm-am for the atmosphere of Mars was measured, slightly below the O2 abundances measured a decade earlier.  相似文献   

6.
We present submillimeter observations of 12CO J=3-2 and 2-1, and 13CO J=2-1 lines of the Venusian mesosphere and lower thermosphere with the Heinrich Hertz Submillimeter Telescope (HHSMT) taken around the second MESSENGER flyby of Venus on 5 June 2007. The observations cover a range of Venus solar elongations with different fractional disk illuminations. Preliminary results like temperature and CO abundance profiles are presented.These data are part of a coordinated observational campaign in support of the ESA Venus Express mission. Furthermore, this study attempts to contribute to cross-calibrate space- and ground-based observations, to constrain radiative transfer and retrieval algorithms for planetary atmospheres, and to a more thorough understanding of the global patters of circulation of the Venusian atmosphere.  相似文献   

7.
S. Kumar  D.M. Hunten  J.B. Pollack 《Icarus》1983,55(3):369-389
Nonthermal escape processes responsible for the escape of hydrogen and deuterium from Venus are examined for present and past atmospheres. Three mechanisms are important for the escape of hydrogen from the present atmosphere: (a) charge exchange of plasmaspheric H+ with exospheric H, (b) impact of exospheric hot O atoms on H, and (c) ion molecule reactions involving O+ and H2. However, in the past when the H abundance was higher, the charge-exchange mechanism would be the strongest. The H escape flux increases rapidly with increasing hydrogen abundance in the upper atmosphere and saturates at a value of 1 × 1010 cm?2 sec?1 emerging primarily from the day side when the H mixing ratio at the homopause is 2 × 10?3. This corresponds to an H2O mixing ratio of 1 × 10?3 at the cold trap and ~15% at the surface. Deuterium would also escape by the charge-exchange mechanism and a D/H enrichment by a factor of ~1000 over the nonthermal escape regime is expected, which could have lasted over the last 3 billion years. Coincidentally, the onset of hydrodynamic flow leading to efficient H escape occurs just at the H2O mixing ratio at which the charge-exchange escape flux saturates. Thus it is possible that Venus has lost an Earth-equivalent ocean of water over geologic time. If so, either the D/H enrichment has been kept low by modest outgassing of juvenile water or Venus started out with a D/H ratio of ~4.0 × 10?6.  相似文献   

8.
We report vertical thermal structure and wind velocities in the Venusian mesosphere retrieved from carbon monoxide (12CO J=2-1 and 13CO J=2-1) spectral line observations obtained with the Heinrich Hertz Submillimeter Telescope (HHSMT). We observed the mesosphere of Venus from two days after the second Messenger flyby of Venus (on 5 June 2007 at 23:10 UTC) during five days. Day-to-day and day-to-night temperature variations and short-term fluctuations of the mesospheric zonal flow were evident in our data. The extensive layer of warm air detected recently by SPICAV at 90-100 km altitude is also detected in the temperature profiles reported here.These data were part of a coordinated ground-based Venus observational campaign in support of the ESA Venus Express mission. Furthermore, this study attempts to cross-calibrate space- and ground-based observations, to constrain radiative transfer and retrieval algorithms for planetary atmospheres, and to contribute to a more thorough understanding of the global patterns of circulation of the Venusian atmosphere.  相似文献   

9.
I. Romeo  D.L. Turcotte 《Icarus》2009,203(1):13-19
The areas of volcanic units on Venus have been measured on the 1:5000000 geological maps published by NASA/USGS. These data were used to obtain a frequency-area distribution. The cumulative frequency-area distribution of 1544 specific occurrence of units cover six orders of magnitude from the largest unit (30 × 106 km2) to the smallest (20 km2). The probability distribution function has been calculated. The medium and large volcanic units correlate well with a power-law (fractal) relation for the dependence of frequency on area with a slope of −1.83. There are fewer small units than the expected values provided by the power-law relation. Our measurements cover 21.02% of the planetary surface, 3.59% of the study area was found to be tessera terrain and is excluded from this study of volcanism. The measurements were restricted to areas where geological maps have been published. The analysis was performed on two independent areas of the planet, with a complete coverage of published maps. In both areas the largest volcanic unit covers a significant portion of the surface (58.75% and 63.64%, respectively). For the total measured volcanic units (excluding tessera), these two largest units (that could correspond to the same unit or not) cover the 61.18% and they are stratigraphically superimposed on older volcanic units which cover 3.37% of the area. The remaining area (35.45%) is occupied by younger volcanic units stratigraphically superimposed on the large volcanic unit(s). These results are based on the independent mapping of a large number of geologists with different ideas about the geodynamical evolution of Venus and different criteria for geological mapping. Despite this fact, the presence of these very large units is incompatible with the equilibrium resurfacing models, because their generation at different ages would destroy the crater randomness. Our frequency-area distribution of the mapped volcanic units supports a catastrophic resurfacing due to the emplacement of the largest unit(s) followed by a decay of volcanism. Our data for the frequency-area distribution of volcanic units provide new support for catastrophic resurfacing models. It is difficult to make our observations compatible with equilibrium, steady-state resurfacing models.  相似文献   

10.
《Planetary and Space Science》2007,55(12):1673-1700
Spectroscopy for the investigation of the characteristics of the atmosphere of Venus (SPICAV) is a suite of three spectrometers in the UV and IR range with a total mass of 13.9 kg flying on the Venus Express (VEX) orbiter, dedicated to the study of the atmosphere of Venus from ground level to the outermost hydrogen corona at more than 40,000 km. It is derived from the SPICAM instrument already flying on board Mars Express (MEX) with great success, with the addition of a new IR high-resolution spectrometer, solar occultation IR (SOIR), working in the solar occultation mode. The instrument consists of three spectrometers and a simple data processing unit providing the interface of these channels with the spacecraft.A UV spectrometer (118–320 nm, resolution 1.5 nm) is identical to the MEX version. It is dedicated to nadir viewing, limb viewing and vertical profiling by stellar and solar occultation. In nadir orientation, SPICAV UV will analyse the albedo spectrum (solar light scattered back from the clouds) to retrieve SO2, and the distribution of the UV-blue absorber (of still unknown origin) on the dayside with implications for cloud structure and atmospheric dynamics. On the nightside, γ and δ bands of NO will be studied, as well as emissions produced by electron precipitations. In the stellar occultation mode the UV sensor will measure the vertical profiles of CO2, temperature, SO2, SO, clouds and aerosols. The density/temperature profiles obtained with SPICAV will constrain and aid in the development of dynamical atmospheric models, from cloud top (∼60 km) to 160 km in the atmosphere. This is essential for future missions that would rely on aerocapture and aerobraking. UV observations of the upper atmosphere will allow studies of the ionosphere through the emissions of CO, CO+, and CO2+, and its direct interaction with the solar wind. It will study the H corona, with its two different scale heights, and it will allow a better understanding of escape mechanisms and estimates of their magnitude, crucial for insight into the long-term evolution of the atmosphere.The SPICAV VIS-IR sensor (0.7–1.7 μm, resolution 0.5–1.2 nm) employs a pioneering technology: an acousto-optical tunable filter (AOTF). On the nightside, it will study the thermal emission peeping through the clouds, complementing the observations of both VIRTIS and Planetary Fourier Spectrometer (PFS) on VEX. In solar occultation mode this channel will study the vertical structure of H2O, CO2, and aerosols.The SOIR spectrometer is a new solar occultation IR spectrometer in the range λ=2.2–4.3 μm, with a spectral resolution λλ>15,000, the highest on board VEX. This new concept includes a combination of an echelle grating and an AOTF crystal to sort out one order at a time. The main objective is to measure HDO and H2O in solar occultation, in order to characterize the escape of D atoms from the upper atmosphere and give more insight about the evolution of water on Venus. It will also study isotopes of CO2 and minor species, and provides a sensitive search for new species in the upper atmosphere of Venus. It will attempt to measure also the nightside emission, which would allow a sensitive measurement of HDO in the lower atmosphere, to be compared to the ratio in the upper atmosphere, and possibly discover new minor atmospheric constituents.  相似文献   

11.
In situ measurements of the Venus atmosphere, made by the entry probes Venera 4, 5, 6, and 7, and data from the Mariner 5 flyby, have provided essentially new and reliable information and have powerfully contributed to our understanding of the nearest planet. The abundances of the principal atmospheric constituents and the temperature and pressure profiles down to the Venus surface were obtained for the first time. It was shown that the atmosphere is composed primarily of CO2 and that N2 (if any) and H2O are relatively minor admixtures. In the region of the Venera 7 landing, the temperature and pressure at the Venus surface were established as equal to 747 ± 20°K and 90 ± 15 kgcm−2. Space vehicles have also provided limited but quite important information on the physical properties of the Venus upper atmosphere and ionosphere, and on the interaction of the planet with the interplanetary environment. The main characteristics of the Venus atmosphere are discussed here with emphasis on the Venera results, including instrumentation, data processing, and altitude profiles.  相似文献   

12.
Yuk L. Yung  W.B. Demore 《Icarus》1982,51(2):199-247
The photochemistry of the stratosphere of Venus was modeled using an updated and expanded chemical scheme, combined with the results of recent observations and laboratory studies. We examined three models, with H2 mixing ratio equal to 2 × 10?5, 5 × 10?7, and 1 × 10?13, respectively. All models satisfactorily account for the observations of CO, O2, O2(1Δ), and SO2 in the stratosphere, but only the last one may be able to account for the diurnal behavior of mesospheric CO and the uv albedo. Oxygen, derived from CO2 photolysis, is primarily consumed by CO2 recombination and oxidation of SO2 to H2SO4. Photolysis of HCl in the upper stratosphere provides a major source of odd hydrogen and free chlorine radicals, essential for the catalytic oxidation of CO. Oxidation of SO2 by O occurs in the lower stratosphere. In the high-H2 model (model A) the OO bond is broken mainly by S + O2 and SO + HO2. In the low-H2 models additional reactions for breaking the OO bond must be invoked: NO + HO2 in model B and ClCO + O2 in model C. It is shown that lightning in the lower atmosphere could provide as much as 30 ppb of NOx in the stratosphere. Our modeling reveals a number of intriguing similarities, previously unsuspected, between the chemistry of the stratosphere of Venus and that of the Earth. Photochemistry may have played a major role in the evolution of the atmosphere. The current atmosphere, as described by our preferred model, is characterized by an extreme deficiency of hydrogen species, having probably lost the equivalent of 102–103 times the present hydrogen content.  相似文献   

13.
To date, ozone has only been identified in the atmospheres of Earth and Mars. This study reports the first detection of ozone in the atmosphere of Venus by the SPICAV ultraviolet instrument onboard the Venus Express spacecraft. Venusian ozone is characterized by a vertically confined and horizontally variable layer residing in the thermosphere at a mean altitude of 100 km, with local concentrations of the order of 107–108 molecules cm−3. The observed ozone concentrations are consistent with values expected for a chlorine-catalyzed destruction scheme, indicating that the key chemical reactions operating in Earth’s upper stratosphere may also operate on Venus.  相似文献   

14.

A brief review on the history of constructing Earth-like models of the Venusian interior is presented. Available observational data are analyzed. An explanation for the anomalously large ratio of the quadrupole gravitational moment J2 to the small parameter of Venus q is proposed. Thus, estimates were obtained for the precession constant and principal moments of inertia for the Earth-like model of Venus.

  相似文献   

15.
Andrew T. Young 《Icarus》1977,32(1):1-26
A simple radiative-transfer theory that allows for the change in the absorptions of sulfur and carbon dioxide with depth in the atmosphere of Venus can account simultaneously for (1) the spectral reflectance of Venus; (2) the wavelength dependence of contrast in uv cloud features; (3) the CO2 line profile; (4) the change in slope of the curve of growth from the 7820- to the 10488-Å CO2 bands; and (5) the rotational temperature near 246°K found for all CO2 bands. The model cloud consists of 1-μm sulfuric-acid particles, which are well mixed between about 64 km and the 49-km cloud base found by Veneras 9 and 10, plus an overlapping cloud of much larger sulfur particles that extends down to the 35-km cloud base found by Venera 8. The mixing ratios (by number of molecules) below about 64 km are: H2O, 2 × 10?4; H2SO4, 10?5; and sulfur, 10?4. Although the cloud contains an order of magnitude more sulfur than sulfuric acid, the sulfur particles are an order of magnitude larger, and so have only about 1% of the number density of the acid droplets. The “black-white” radiative-transfer model assumes perfectly conservative scattering above the level (which depends on wavelength) where an absorber becomes “black” due to the local temperature and pressure. So-called homogeneous scattering models are inherently self-contradictory, and are inapplicable to planetary atmospheres; the vertical inhomogeneity is an essential feature that must be modeled correctly. The pressure of CO2 line formation is about half the pressure in the region where uv markings occur.  相似文献   

16.
《Planetary and Space Science》2007,55(12):1653-1672
The Visible and Infrared Thermal Imaging Spectrometer (VIRTIS) on board the ESA/Venus Express mission has technical specifications well suited for many science objectives of Venus exploration. VIRTIS will both comprehensively explore a plethora of atmospheric properties and processes and map optical properties of the surface through its three channels, VIRTIS-M-vis (imaging spectrometer in the 0.3–1 μm range), VIRTIS-M-IR (imaging spectrometer in the 1–5 μm range) and VIRTIS-H (aperture high-resolution spectrometer in the 2–5 μm range). The atmospheric composition below the clouds will be repeatedly measured in the night side infrared windows over a wide range of latitudes and longitudes, thereby providing information on Venus's chemical cycles. In particular, CO, H2O, OCS and SO2 can be studied. The cloud structure will be repeatedly mapped from the brightness contrasts in the near-infrared night side windows, providing new insights into Venusian meteorology. The global circulation and local dynamics of Venus will be extensively studied from infrared and visible spectral images. The thermal structure above the clouds will be retrieved in the night side using the 4.3 μm fundamental band of CO2. The surface of Venus is detectable in the short-wave infrared windows on the night side at 1.01, 1.10 and 1.18 μm, providing constraints on surface properties and the extent of active volcanism. Many more tentative studies are also possible, such as lightning detection, the composition of volcanic emissions, and mesospheric wave propagation.  相似文献   

17.
Nonthermal emission occurs in the cores of the 9.4- and 10.4-μm CO2 bands on Mars, and has been recently identified as a natural atmospheric laser. This paper presents observations of the total flux and center-to-limb dependence of this emission for Mars and Venus. The emission is believed to be excited by absorption of solar flux in the near-ir CO2 bands, followed by collisional transfer to the 00°1 state of CO2. A comparison is made between the observations and a detailed theoretical model based on this mechanism. It is found that the theoretical model successfully reproduces the observed center-to-limb dependence of this emission, to within the limits imposed by the spatial resolution of the observations. A comparison is also made between the observed fluxes and the predictions of the theoretical models. The observed flux from Mars agrees closely with the prediction of the model; the flux observed from Venus is 74% of the flux predicted by the model. This emission is utilized to obtain the kinetic temperatures of the Martian and Venusian mesospheres. For Mars near 70 km altitude, a rotational temperature analysis using five lines gives T = 135 ± 20°K. The frequency width of the emission is also analyzed to derive a temperature of 126 ± 6°K. In the case of the Venusian mesosphere near 109 km, the frequency width of the emission gives T = 204 ± 10°K.  相似文献   

18.
19.
Absorption and polarization line profiles as well as the curves of growth in the integrated light of a planet over the whole range of phase angles have been computed assuming a semi-infinite atmosphere scattering according to Rayleigh’s phase-matrix which takes polarization into account. The relative change in line depth and equivalent widths qualitatively agree with the observations of the CO2 bands in Venus reported by Young, Schorn and Young (1980). It is pointed out that the bands might be formed in a part of the atmosphere which is different from that where continuum polarization originates.  相似文献   

20.
A.T. Young 《Icarus》1973,18(4):564-582
Water solutions of sulfuric acid, containing about 75% H2SO4 by weight, have a refractive index within 0.01 of the values deduced from polarimetric observations of the Venus clouds. These solutions remain liquid at the cloud temperature, thus explaining the spherical shape of the cloud particles (droplets). The equilibrium vapor pressure of water above such solutions is 0.01 that of liquid water or ice, which accounts for the observed dryness of the cloud region. Furthermore, H2SO4 solutions of such concentration have spectra very similar to Venus in the 8–13 μm region; in particular, they explain the 11.2 μm band. Cold sulfuric acid solutions also seem consistent with Venus spectra in the 3–4 μm region. The amount of acid required to make the visible clouds is quite small, and is consistent with both the cosmic abundance of sulfur and the degree of out-gassing of the planet indicated by known atmospheric constituents. Sulfuric acid occurs naturally in volcanic gases, along with known constituents of the Venus atmosphere such as CO2, HCl, and HF ; it is produced at high temperature by reactions between these gases and common sulfate rocks. The great stability and low vapor pressure of H2SO4 and its water solutions explain the lack of other sulfur compounds in the atmosphere of Venus—a lack that is otherwise puzzling.Sulfuric acid precipitation may explain some peculiarities in Venera and Mariner data. Because sulfuric acid solutions are in good agreement with the Venus data, and because no other material that has been proposed is even consistent with the polarimetric and spectroscopic data, H2SO4 must be considered the most probable constituent of the Venus clouds.  相似文献   

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