首页 | 本学科首页   官方微博 | 高级检索  
相似文献
 共查询到20条相似文献，搜索用时 156 毫秒
1.
J.L. Fox 《Icarus》2007,192(1):296-301
In recent articles published in Icarus, Bakalian [2006. Icarus 183, 69-78] discusses and computes the production rates of hot nitrogen atoms in the martian thermosphere due to N2 photodissociation and N+2 dissociative recombination, and Bakalian and Hartle [2006. Icarus 183, 55-68] use a Monte Carlo code to compute the escape rates of nitrogen atoms from Mars due to photodissociation of N2, dissociative recombination of N+2, and pickup ion escape due to photoionization of N atoms above the ionopause. Bakalian concludes that “photodissociation of N2 is the dominant escape mechanism in the martian atmosphere.” We will show that this conclusion is not supportable. In addition, both papers contain scientific errors, misrepresentations, inaccurate referencing, lack of proper attribution, and they fail to place these investigations into the existing extensive body of work on this subject.  相似文献   

2.
Monte Carlo simulations were carried out to compute the escape flux of atomic nitrogen for the low and high solar activity martian thermospheres. The total escape of atomic nitrogen at low and high solar activities was found to be 3.03×105 and , respectively. The escape flux of atomic nitrogen at low and high solar activities from photodissociation of N2 was found to be 2.75×105 and , respectively. The remainder of the contribution is from dissociative recombination, which is only important at high solar activity were it comprises about 25% of the total escape. The relative contributions to the total N escape flux from thermal motion of the background atmosphere, winds and co-rotation, and photoionization and subsequent solar wind pickup are also considered here. We find that the total predicted escape fluxes are observed to increase by 20 and 25% at low and high solar activities owing to thermal motion of the background atmosphere. At low and high solar activities, we find that the co-rotation and wind velocities combined translate to a maximum transferable energy of ∼0.0103 and 0.0181 eV, respectively, and that the total escape flux contribution from winds and co-rotation is negligible. Photoionization was found to be a minor process only impacting those source atoms produced with energies close to the escape energy, between 1.5 and 2 eV. The contributions to the total escape fluxes at low and high solar activities from photoionization and subsequent solar wind pickup are found to be about 8 and 13%, respectively.  相似文献   

3.
Rates of production of O(1 D) atoms in the upper atmosphere by photodissociation of O2, dissociative recombination of O2 +, NO+ and electron impact excitation of O(3 P) have been calculated for low, medium and high levels of solar activity. Variations with solar activity, of neutral and ionic composition, electron and neutral temperatures of the upper atmosphere and solar extreme ultraviolet fluxes incident on it have been taken into consideration.Emission rates ofOi red line (6300Å) have been computed taking into account the deactivation both by molecular oxygen and nitrogen. It has been shown that the integrated intensity from low to high activity period varies by approximately an order of magnitude in agreement with the results of experimental observations.  相似文献   

4.
Darrell F. Strobel 《Icarus》2008,193(2):612-619
Hydrodynamic escape of N2 molecules from Pluto's atmosphere is calculated under the assumption of a high density, slow outflow expansion driven by solar EUV heating by N2 absorption, near-IR and UV heating by CH4 absorption, and CO cooling by rotational line emission as a function of solar activity. At 30 AU, the N2 escape rate varies from in the absence of heating, but driven by an upward thermal heat conduction flux from the stratosphere, for lower boundary temperatures varying from 70-100 K. With solar heating varying from solar minimum to solar maximum conditions and a calculated lower boundary temperature, 88.2 K, the N2 escape rate range is , respectively. LTE rotational line emission by CO reduces the net solar heat input by at most 35% and plays a minor role in lowering the calculated escape rates, but ensures that the lower boundary temperature can be calculated by radiative equilibrium with near-IR CH4 heating. While an upward thermal conduction heat flux at the lower boundary plays a fundamental role in the absence of heating, with solar heating it is downward at solar minimum, and is, at most, 13% of the integrated net heating rate over the range of solar activity. For the arrival of the New Horizons spacecraft at Pluto in July 2015, predictions are lower boundary temperature, T0∼81 K, and N2 escape rate , and peak thermospheric temperature ∼103 K at 1890 km, based on expected solar medium conditions.  相似文献   

5.
Quantitative calculations of the escape rate of nitrogen by photodissociation and photoionization, by photoelectron impact processes, by chemical reactions and by dissociative recombination are reported. It is shown that the predicted present escape rate of 2.0 × 105 atoms cm?2 S?1 is consistent with the measured 15N/14N isotope ratio. A minimum of 4.0 × 1022 cm?2 S?1 is obtained for the initial reservoir of N2. The production rates of N(4S) and N(2D) atoms in the atmosphere are obtained and the altitude profile of N(2D) is calculated.  相似文献   

6.
The yield of metastable nitrogen atoms in dissociative recombination of N2+ (v = 0, 1)ions has been tudied for different experimental conditions. In a first experiment, the branching ratio for N(2D) production was directly measured as being higher than 1.85; for N2+ (v = 0) this implies that 2D + 2D is the main reaction channel; for N2+ (v = 1) a minor channel could be 2P + 2D, 2P being then quenched toward 2D by electrons. In a second experiment, at higher electron densities, the influence of superelastic collisions was studied; a steady state analysis yields the quenching rate coefficient k4, of 2D towards 4S equal to 2.4 × 10?10 cm3 s?1for Te = 3900 K and shows that 2D + 2D is always the major channel of the reaction for N2+ (v = 1), 2D + 2P being a minor channel. All these results are in good agreement with thermospheric models but imply that N2+ dissociative recombination is a less important source for nitrogen escape of Mars.  相似文献   

7.
A two-dimensional kinetic model calculation for the water group species (H2O, H2, O2, OH, O, H) in Europa's atmosphere is undertaken to determine its basic compositional structure, gas escape rates, and velocity distribution information to initialize neutral cloud model calculations for the most important gas tori. The dominant atmospheric species is O2 at low altitudes and H2 at higher altitudes with average day-night column densities of 4.5×1014 and 7.7×1013 cm−2, respectively. H2 forms the most important gas torus with an escape rate of ∼2×1027 s−1 followed by O with an escape rate of ∼5×1026 s−1, created primarily as exothermic O products from O2 dissociation by magnetospheric electrons. The circumplanetary distributions of H2 and O are highly peaked about the satellite location and asymmetrically distributed near Europa's orbit about Jupiter, have substantial forward clouds extending radially inward to Io's orbit, and have spatially integrated cloud populations of 4.2×1033 molecules for H2 and 4.0×1032 atoms for O that are larger than their corresponding populations in Europa's local atmosphere by a factor of ∼200 and ∼1000, respectively. The cloud population for H2 is a factor of ∼3 times larger than that for the combined cloud population of Io's O and S neutral clouds and provides the dominant neutral population beyond the so-called ramp region at 7.4-7.8 RJ in the plasma torus. The calculated brightness of Europa's O cloud on the sky plane is very dim at the sub-Rayleigh level. The H2 and O tori provide a new source of europagenic molecular and atomic pickup ions for the thermal plasma and introduce a neutral barrier in which new plasma sinks are created for the cooler iogenic plasma as it is transported radially outward and in which new sinks are created to alter the population and pitch angle distribution of the energetic plasma as it is transported radially inward. The europagenic instantaneous pickup ion rates are peaked at Europa's orbit, dominate the iogenic pickup ion rates beyond the ramp region, and introduce new secondary plasma source peaks in the solution of the plasma transport problem. The H2 torus is identified as the unknown Europa gas torus that creates both the observed loss of energetic H+ ions at Europa's orbit and the corresponding measured ENA production rate for H.  相似文献   

8.
Chemical reactions and volatile supply through hypervelocity impacts may have played a key role for the origin and evolution of both planetary and satellite atmospheres. In this study, we evaluate the role of impact-induced N2 production from reduced nitrogen-bearing solids proposed to be contained in Titan’s crust, ammonium sulfate ((NH4)2SO4), for the replenishment of N2 to the atmosphere in Titan’s history. To investigate the conversion of (NH4)2SO4 into N2 by hypervelocity impacts, we measured gases released from (NH4)2SO4 that was exposed to hypervelocity impacts created by a laser gun. The sensitivity and accuracy of the measurements were enhanced by using an isotope labeling technique for the target. We obtained the efficiency of N2 production from (NH4)2SO4 as a function of peak shock pressure ranging from ∼8 to ∼45 GPa. Our results indicate that the initial and complete shock pressures for N2 degassing from (NH4)2SO4 are ∼10 and ∼25 GPa, respectively. These results suggest that cometary impacts on Titan (i.e., impact velocity vi > ∼8 km/s) produce N2 efficiently; whereas satellitesimal impacts during the accretion (i.e., vi < 4 km/s) produce N2 only inefficiently. Even when using the proposed small amount of (NH4)2SO4 content in the crust (∼4 wt.%) (Fortes, A.D. et al., 2007. Icarus 188, 139-153), the total amount of N2 provided through cometary impacts over 4.5 Ga reaches ∼2-6 times the present atmospheric N2 (i.e., ∼7 × 1020-2 × 1021 [mol]) based on the measured production efficiency and results of a hydrodynamic simulation of cometary impacts onto Titan. This implies that cometary impacts onto Titan’s crust have the potential to account for a large part of the present N2 through the atmospheric replenishment after the accretion.  相似文献   

9.
The evolution of the martian atmosphere with regard to its H2O inventory is influenced by thermal loss processes of H, H2, nonthermal atmospheric loss processes of H+, H2+, O, O+, CO2, and O2+ into space, as well as by chemical weathering of the surface soil. The evolution of thermal and nonthermal escape processes depend on the history of the intensity of the solar XUV radiation and the solar wind density. Thus, we use actual data from the observation of solar proxies with different ages from the Sun in Time program for reconstructing the Sun's radiation and particle environment from the present to 3.5 Gyr ago. The correlation between mass loss and X-ray surface flux of solar proxies follows a power law relationship, which indicates a solar wind density up to 1000 times higher at the beginning of the Sun's main sequence lifetime. For the study of various atmospheric escape processes we used a gas dynamic test particle model for the estimation of the pick up ion loss rates and considered pick up ion sputtering, as well as dissociative recombination. The loss of H2O from Mars over the last 3.5 Gyr was estimated to be equivalent to a global martian H2O ocean with a depth of about 12 m, which is smaller than the values reported by previous studies. If ion momentum transport, a process studied in detail by Mars Express is significant on Mars, the water loss may be enhanced by a factor of about 2. In our investigation we found that the sum of thermal and nonthermal atmospheric loss rates of H and all nonthermal escape processes of O to space are not compatible with a ratio of 2:1, and is currently close to about 20:1. Escape to space cannot therefore be the only sink for oxygen on Mars. Our results suggest that the missing oxygen (needed for the validation of the 2:1 ratio between H and O) can be explained by the incorporation into the martian surface by chemical weathering processes since the onset of intense oxidation about 2 Gyr ago. Based on the evolution of the atmosphere-surface-interaction on Mars, an overall global surface sink of about 2×1042 oxygen particles in the regolith can be expected. Because of the intense oxidation of inorganic matter, this process may have led to the formation of considerable amounts of sulfates and ferric oxides on Mars. To model this effect we consider several factors: (1) the amount of incorporated oxygen, (2) the inorganic composition of the martian soil and (3) meteoritic gardening. We show that the oxygen incorporation has also implications for the oxidant extinction depth, which is an important parameter to determine required sampling depths on Mars aimed at finding putative organic material. We found that the oxidant extinction depth is expected to lie in a range between 2 and 5 m for global mean values.  相似文献   

10.
Hydrogen peroxide (H2O2) has been suggested as a possible oxidizer of the martian surface. Photochemical models predict a mean column density in the range of 1015-1016 cm−2. However, a stringent upper limit of the H2O2 abundance on Mars (9×1014 cm−2) was derived in February 2001 from ground-based infrared spectroscopy, at a time corresponding to a maximum water vapor abundance in the northern summer (30 pr. μm, Ls=112°). Here we report the detection of H2O2 on Mars in June 2003, and its mapping over the martian disk using the same technique, during the southern spring (Ls=206°) when the global water vapor abundance was ∼10 pr. μm. The spatial distribution of H2O2 shows a maximum in the morning around the sub-solar latitude. The mean H2O2 column density (6×1015 cm−2) is significantly greater than our previous upper limit, pointing to seasonal variations. Our new result is globally consistent with the predictions of photochemical models, and also with submillimeter ground-based measurements obtained in September 2003 (Ls=254°), averaged over the martian disk (Clancy et al., 2004, Icarus 168, 116-121).  相似文献   

11.
Darrell F. Strobel 《Icarus》2009,202(2):632-641
In Strobel [Strobel, D.F., 2008. Icarus, 193, 588-594] a mass loss rate from Titan's upper atmosphere, , was calculated for a single constituent, N2 atmosphere by hydrodynamic escape as a high density, slow outward expansion driven principally by solar UV heating due to CH4 absorption. It was estimated, but not proven, that the hydrodynamic mass loss is essentially CH4 and H2 escape. Here the individual conservation of momentum equations for the three major components of the upper atmosphere (N2, CH4, H2) are solved in the low Mach number limit and compared with Cassini Ion Neutral Mass Spectrometer (INMS) measurements to demonstrate that light gases (CH4, H2) preferentially escape over the heavy gas (N2). The lightest gas (H2) escapes with a flux 99% of its limiting flux, whereas CH4 is restricted to ?75% of its limiting flux because there is insufficient solar power to support escape at the limiting rate. The respective calculated H2 and CH4 escape rates are 9.2×1027 and 1.7×1027 s−1, for a total of . From the calculated densities, mean free paths of N2, CH4, H2, and macroscopic length scales, an extended region above the classic exobase is inferred where frequent collisions are still occurring and thermal heat conduction can deliver power to lift the escaping gas out of the gravitational potential well. In this region rapid acceleration of CH4 outflow occurs. With the thermal structure of Titan's thermosphere inferred from INMS data by Müller-Wodarg et al. [Müller-Wodarg, I.C.F., Yelle, R.V., Cui, J., Waite Jr., J.H., 2008. J. Geophys. Res. 113, doi:10.1029/2007JE003033. E10005], in combination with calculated temperature profiles that include sputter induced plasma heating at the exobase, it is concluded that on average that the integrated, globally average, orbit-averaged, plasma heating rate during the Cassini epoch does not exceed ().  相似文献   

12.
Long-term MGS drag density observations at 390 km reveal variations of the density with season LS (by a factor of 2) and solar activity index F10.7 (by a factor of 3 for F10.7 = 40-100). According to Forbes et al. (Forbes, J.M., Lemoine, F.G., Bruinsma, S.L., Smith, M.D., Zhang, X. [2008]. Geophys. Res. Lett. 35, L01201, doi:10.1029/2007GL031904), the variation with F10.7 reflects variations of the exospheric temperature from 192 to 284 K. However, the derived temperature range corresponds to variation of the density at 390 km by a factor of 8, far above the observed factor of 3. The recent thermospheric GCMs agree with the derived temperatures but do not prove their adequacy to the MGS densities at 390 km. A model used by Forbes et al. neglects effects of eddy diffusion, chemistry and escape on species densities above 138 km. We have made a 1D-model of neutral and ion composition at 80-400 km that treats selfconsistently chemistry and transport of species with F10.7, T∞, and [CO2]80 km as input parameters. Applying this model to the MGS densities at 390 km, we find variation of T∞ from 240 to 280 K for F10.7 = 40 and 100, respectively. The results are compared with other observations and models. Temperatures from some observations and the latest models disagree with the MGS densities at low and mean solar activity. Linear fits to the exospheric temperatures are T∞ = 122 + 2.17F10.7 for the observations, T∞ = 131 + 1.46F10.7 for the latest models, and T∞ = 233 + 0.54F10.7 for the MGS densities at 390 km. Maybe the observed MGS densities are overestimated near solar minimum when they are low and difficult to measure. Seasonal variations of Mars’ thermosphere corrected for the varying heliocentric distance are mostly due to the density variations in the lower and middle atmosphere and weakly affect thermospheric temperature. Nonthermal escape processes for H, D, H2, HD, and He are calculated for the solar minimum and maximum conditions.Another problem considered here refers to Mars global photochemistry in the lower and middle atmosphere. The models gave too low abundances of CO, smaller by an order of magnitude than those observed. Our current work shows that modifications in the boundary conditions proposed by Zahnle et al. (Zahnle, K., Haberle, R.M., Catling, D.C., Kasting, J.F. [2008]. J. Geophys. Res. 113, E11004, doi:10.1029/2008JE003160) are reasonable but do not help to solve the problem.  相似文献   

13.
  相似文献   

14.
  相似文献   

15.
In Titan's atmosphere consisting of N2 and CH4, large amounts of atomic hydrogen are produced by photochemical reactions during the formation of complex organics. This atomic hydrogen may undergo heterogeneous reactions with organic aerosol in the stratosphere and mesosphere of Titan. In order to investigate both the mechanisms and kinetics of the heterogeneous reactions, atomic deuterium is irradiated onto Titan tholin formed from N2 and CH4 gas mixtures at various surface-temperatures of the tholin ranging from 160 to 310 K. The combined analyses of the gas species and the exposed tholin indicate that the interaction mechanisms of atomic deuterium with the tholin are composed of three reactions; (a) abstraction of hydrogen from tholin resulting in gaseous HD formation (HD recombination), (b) addition of D atom into tholin (hydrogenation), and (c) removal of carbon and/or nitrogen (chemical erosion). The reaction probabilities of HD recombination and hydrogenation are obtained as ηabst=1.9(±0.6)×10−3×exp(−300/T) and ηhydro=2.08(±0.64)×exp(−1000/T), respectively. The chemical erosion process is very inefficient under the conditions of temperature range of Titan's stratosphere and mesosphere. Under Titan conditions, the rates of hydrogenation > HD recombination ? chemical erosion. Our measured HD recombination rate is about 10 times (with an uncertainty of a factor of 3-5) the prediction of previous theoretical model. These results imply that organic aerosol can remove atomic hydrogen efficiently from Titan's atmosphere through the heterogeneous reactions and that the presence of aerosol may affect the subsequent organic chemistry.  相似文献   

16.
Stephen D. Eckermann  Jun Ma 《Icarus》2011,211(1):429-442
Using a Curtis-matrix model of 15 μm CO2 radiative cooling rates for the martian atmosphere, we have computed vertical scale-dependent IR radiative damping rates from 0 to 200 km altitude over a broad band of vertical wavenumbers ∣m∣ = 2π(1-500 km)−1 for representative meteorological conditions at 40°N and average levels of solar activity and dust loading. In the middle atmosphere, infrared (IR) radiative damping rates increase with decreasing vertical scale and peak in excess of 30 days−1 at ∼50-80 km altitude, before gradually transitioning to scale-independent rates above ∼100 km due to breakdown of local thermodynamic equilibrium. We incorporate these computed IR radiative damping rates into a linear anelastic gravity-wave model to assess the impact of IR radiative damping, relative to wave breaking and molecular viscosity, in the dissipation of gravity-wave momentum flux. The model results indicate that IR radiative damping is the dominant process in dissipating gravity-wave momentum fluxes at ∼0-50 km altitude, and is the dominant process at all altitudes for gravity waves with vertical wavelengths ?10-15 km. Wave breaking becomes dominant at higher altitudes only for “fast” waves of short horizontal and long vertical wavelengths. Molecular viscosity plays a negligible role in overall momentum flux deposition. Our results provide compelling evidence that IR radiative damping is a major, and often dominant physical process controlling the dissipation of gravity-wave momentum fluxes on Mars, and therefore should be incorporated into future parameterizations of gravity-wave drag within Mars GCMs. Lookup tables for doing so, based on the current computations, are provided.  相似文献   

17.
Based on the vapor pressure behavior of Pluto’s surface ices, Pluto’s atmosphere is expected to be predominantly composed of N2 gas. Measurement of the N2 isotopologue 15N/14N ratio within Pluto’s atmosphere would provide important clues to the evolution of Pluto’s atmosphere from the time of formation to its present state. The most straightforward way of determining the N2 isotopologue 15N/14N ratio in Pluto’s atmosphere is via spectroscopic observation of the 14N15N gas species. Recent calculations of the 80–100 nm absorption behavior of the 14N2 and 14N15N isotopologues by Heays et al. (Heays, A.N. et al. [2011]. J. Chem. Phys. 135, 244301), Lewis et al. (Lewis, B.R., Heays, A.N., Gibson, S.T., Lefebvre-Brion, H., Lefebvre, R. [2008]. J. Chem. Phys. 129, 164306); Lewis et al. (Lewis, B.R., Gibson, S.T., Zhang, W., Lefebvre-Brion, H., Robbe, J.-M. [2005]. J. Chem. Phys. 122, 144302), and Haverd et al. (Haverd, V.E., Lewis, B.R., Gibson, S.T., Stark, G. [2005]. J. Chem. Phys. 123, 214304) show that the peak magnitudes of the 14N2 and 14N15N absorption bandhead cross-sections are similar, but the locations of the bandhead peaks are offset in wavelength by ∼0.05–0.1 nm. These offsets make the segregation of the 14N2 and 14N15N absorption signatures possible. We use the most recent N2 isotopologue absorption cross-section calculations and the atmospheric density profiles resulting from photochemical models developed by Krasnopolsky and Cruickshank (Krasnopolsky, V.A., Cruickshank, D.P. [1999]. J. Geophys. Res. 104, 21979–21996) to predict the level of solar light that will be transmitted through Pluto’s atmosphere as a function of altitude during a Pluto solar occultation. We characterize the detectability of the isotopic absorption signature per altitude assuming 14N15N concentrations ranging from 0.1% to 2% of the 14N2 density and instrumental spectral resolutions ranging from 0.01 to 0.3 nm. Our simulations indicate that optical depth of unity is attained in the key 14N15N absorption bands located between 85 and 90 nm at altitudes ∼1100–1600 km above Pluto’s surface. Additionally, an 14N15N isotope absorption depth ∼4–15% is predicted for observations obtained at these altitudes at a spectral resolution of ∼0.2–0.3 nm, if the N2 isotopologue 15N/14N percent ratio is comparable to the 0.37–0.6% ratio observed at Earth, Titan and Mars. If we presume that the predicted absorption depth must be at least 25% greater than the expected observational uncertainty, then it follows that a statistically significant detection of these signatures and constraint of the N2 isotopologue 14N/15N ratio within Pluto’s atmosphere will be possible if the attainable observational signal-to noise (S/N) ratio is ?9. The New Horizons (NH) Mission will be able to obtain high S/N, 0.27–0.35 nm full-width half-max 80–100 nm spectral observations of Pluto using the Alice spectrograph. Based on the NH/Alice specifications we have simulated 0.3 nm spectral resolution solar occultation spectra for the 1100–1600 km altitude range, assuming 30 s integration times. These simulations indicate that NH/Alice will obtain spectral observations within this altitude range with a S/N ratio ∼25–50, and should be able to reliably detect the 14N15N gas absorption signature between 85 and 90 nm if the 14N15N concentration is ∼0.3% or greater. This, additionally, implies that the non-detection of the 14N15N species in the 1100–1600 km range by NH/Alice may be used to reliably establish an upper limit to the N2 isotopologue 15N/14N ratio within Pluto’s atmosphere. Similar results may be derived from 0.2 to 0.3 nm spectral resolution observations of any other N2-rich Solar System or exoplanet atmosphere, provided the observations are attained with similar S/N levels.  相似文献   

18.
Darrell F. Strobel 《Icarus》2008,193(2):588-594
The upper atmosphere of Titan is currently losing mass at a rate , by hydrodynamic escape as a high density, slow outward expansion driven principally by solar UV heating by CH4 absorption. The hydrodynamic mass loss is essentially CH4 and H2 escape. Their combined escape rates are restricted by power limitations from attaining their limiting rates (and limiting fluxes). Hence they must exhibit gravitational diffusive separation in the upper atmosphere with increasing mixing ratios to eventually become major constituents in the exosphere. A theoretical model with solar EUV heating by N2 absorption balanced by HCN rotational line cooling in the upper thermosphere yields densities and temperatures consistent with the Huygens Atmospheric Science Investigation (HASI) data [Fulchignoni, M., and 42 colleagues, 2005. Nature 438, 785-791], with a peak temperature of ∼185-190 K between 3500-3550 km. This model implies hydrodynamic escape rates of and , or some other combination with a higher H2 escape flux, much closer to its limiting value, at the expense of a slightly lower CH4 escape rate. Nonthermal escape processes are not required to account for the loss rates of CH4 and H2, inferred by the Cassini Ion Neutral Mass Spectrometer (INMS) measurements [Yelle, R.V., Borggren, N., de la Haye, V., Kasprzak, W.T., Niemann, H.B., Müller-Wodarg, I., Waite Jr., J.H., 2006. Icarus 182, 567-576].  相似文献   

19.
Darrell F. Strobel 《Icarus》2010,208(2):878-886
The third most abundant species in Titan’s atmosphere is molecular hydrogen with a tropospheric/lower stratospheric mole fraction of 0.001 derived from Voyager and Cassini infrared measurements. The globally averaged thermospheric H2 mole fraction profile from the Cassini Ion Neutral Mass Spectrometer (INMS) measurements implies a small positive gradient in the H2 mixing ratio from the tropopause region to the lower thermosphere (∼950-1000 km), which drives a downward H2 flux into Titan’s surface comparable to the H2 escape flux out of the atmosphere (∼2 × 1010 cm−2 s−1 referenced to the surface) and requires larger photochemical production rates of H2 than obtained by previous photochemical models. From detailed model calculations based on known photochemistry with eddy, molecular, and thermal diffusion, the tropospheric and thermospheric H2 mole fractions are incompatible by a factor of ∼2. The measurements imply that the downward H2 surface flux is in substantial excess of the speculative threshold value for methanogenic life consumption of H2 (McKay, C.P., Smith, H.D. [2005], Icarus 178, 274-276. doi:10.1016/j.icarus.2005.05.018), but without the extreme reduction in the surface H2 mixing ratio.  相似文献   

20.
Long-term spectroscopic observations of the O2 dayglow at 1.27 μm result in a map of the latitudinal and seasonal behavior of the dayglow intensity for the full martian year. The O2 dayglow is a sensitive tracer of Mars' photochemistry, and this map reflects variations of Mars' photochemistry at low and middle latitudes. It may be used to test photochemical models. Long-term observations of the CO mixing ratio have been also combined into the seasonal-latitudinal map. Seasonal and latitudinal variations of the mixing ratios of CO and the other incondensable gases (N2, Ar, O2, and H2) discovered in our previous work are caused by condensation and sublimation of CO2 to and from the polar regions. They reflect dynamics of the atmosphere and polar processes. The observed map may be used to test global circulation models of the martian atmosphere. The observed global abundances of CO are in reasonable agreement with the predicted variations with the 11-year solar cycle. Despite the perfect observing conditions, methane has not been detected using the IRTF/CSHELL with a 3σ upper limit of 14 ppb. This upper limit does not rule out the value of 10 ppb observed using the Canada-France-Hawaii Telescope and the Mars Express Planetary Fourier Spectrometer.  相似文献   

设为首页 | 免责声明 | 关于勤云 | 加入收藏

Copyright©北京勤云科技发展有限公司  京ICP备09084417号