A layer of ozone detected in the nightside upper atmosphere of Venus     

F. Montmessin  J.-L. Bertaux  F. Lefèvre  E. Marcq  D. Belyaev  J.-C. Gérard  O. Korablev  A. Fedorova  V. Sarago  A.C. Vandaele 《Icarus》2011,216(1):82-85

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   

Uranus’ cloud structure and seasonal variability from Gemini-North and UKIRT observations     

P.G.J. Irwin  N.A. Teanby  L.N. Fletcher  D. Tice 《Icarus》2011,212(1):339-350

Observations of Uranus were made in September 2009 with the Gemini-North telescope in Hawaii, using both the NIFS and NIRI instruments. Observations were acquired in Adaptive Optics mode and have a spatial resolution of approximately 0.1″.NIRI images were recorded with three spectral filters to constrain the overall appearance of the planet: J, H-continuum and CH₄(long), and long slit spectroscopy measurements were also made (1.49-1.79 μm) with the entrance slit aligned on Uranus’ central meridian. To acquire spectra from other points on the planet, the NIFS instrument was used and its 3″ × 3″ field of view stepped across Uranus’ disc. These observations were combined to yield complete images of Uranus at 2040 wavelengths between 1.476 and 1.803 μm.The observed spectra along Uranus central meridian were analysed with the NEMESIS retrieval tool and used to infer the vertical/latitudinal variation in cloud optical depth. We find that the 2009 Gemini data perfectly complement our observations/conclusions from UKIRT/UIST observations made in 2006-2008 and show that the north polar zone at 45°N has continued to steadily brighten while that at 45°S has continued to fade. The improved spatial resolution of the Gemini observations compared with the non-AO UKIRT/UIST data removes some of the earlier ambiguities with our previous analyses and shows that the opacity of clouds deeper than the 2-bar level does indeed diminish towards the poles and also reveals a darkening of the deeper cloud deck near the equator, perhaps coinciding with a region of subduction. We find that the clouds at 45°N,S lie at slightly lower pressures than the clouds at more equatorial latitudes, which suggests that they might possibly be composed of a different condensate, presumably CH₄ ice, rather than H₂S or NH₃ ice, which is assumed for the deeper cloud. In addition, analysis of the centre-to-limb curves of both the Gemini/NIFS and earlier UKIRT/UIST IFU observations shows that the main cloud deck has a well-defined top, and also allows us to better constrain the particle scattering properties.Overall, Uranus appeared to be less convectively active in 2009 than in the previous 3 years, which suggests that now the northern spring equinox (which occurred in 2007) is passed the atmosphere is settling back into the quiescent state seen by Voyager 2 in 1986. However, a number of discrete clouds were still observed, with one at 15°N found to lie near the 500 mb level, while another at 30°N, was seen to be much higher at near the 200 mb level. Such high clouds are assumed to be composed of CH₄ ice.  相似文献   

UV and IR auroral emission model for the outer planets: Jupiter and Saturn comparison     

Chihiro Tao  Sarah V. Badman 《Icarus》2011,213(2):581-592

Planetary aurora display the dynamic behavior of the plasma gas surrounding a planet. The outer planetary aurora are most often observed in the ultraviolet (UV) and the infrared (IR) wavelengths. How the emissions in these different wavelengths are connected with the background physical conditions are not yet well understood. Here we investigate the sensitivity of UV and IR emissions to the incident precipitating auroral electrons and the background atmospheric temperature, and compare the results obtained for Jupiter and Saturn. We develop a model which estimates UV and IR emission rates accounting for UV absorption by hydrocarbons, ion chemistry, and non-LTE effects. Parameterization equations are applied to estimate the ionization and excitation profiles in the H₂ atmosphere caused by auroral electron precipitation. The dependences of UV and IR emissions on electron flux are found to be similar at Jupiter and Saturn. However, the dependences of the emissions on electron energy are different at the two planets, especially for low energy (<10 keV) electrons; the UV and IR emissions both decrease with decreasing electron energy, but this effect in the IR is less at Saturn than at Jupiter. The temperature sensitivity of the IR emission is also greater at Saturn than at Jupiter. These dependences are interpreted as results of non-LTE effects on the atmospheric temperature and density profiles. The different dependences of the UV and IR emissions on temperature and electron energy at Saturn may explain the different appearance of polar emissions observed at UV and IR wavelengths, and the differences from those observed at Jupiter. These results lead to the prediction that the differences between the IR and UV aurora at Saturn may be more significant than those at Jupiter. We consider in particular the occurrence of bright polar infrared emissions at Saturn and quantitatively estimate the conditions for such IR-only emissions to appear.  相似文献   

In situ measurements of particle load and transport in dust devils     

S.M. Metzger  M.C. Towner 《Icarus》2011,214(2):766-772

In situ (mobile) sampling of 33 natural dust devil vortices reveals very high total suspended particle (TSP) mean values of 296 mg m⁻³ and fine dust loadings (PM10) mean values ranging from 15.1 to 43.8 mg m⁻³ (milligrams per cubic meter). Concurrent three-dimensional wind profiles show mean tangential rotation of 12.3 m s⁻¹ and vertical uplift of 2.7 m s⁻¹ driving mean vertical TSP flux of 1689 mg m⁻³ s⁻¹ and fine particle flux of ∼1.0 to ∼50 mg m⁻³ s⁻¹. Peak PM10 dust loading and flux within the dust column are three times greater than mean values, suggesting previous estimates of dust devil flux might be too high. We find that deflation rates caused by dust devil erosion are ∼2.5-50 μm per year in dust devil active zones on Earth. Similar values are expected for Mars, and may be more significant there where competing erosional mechanisms are less likely.  相似文献   

前寒武纪条带状硅铁建造的形成机制与地球早期的大气和海洋   总被引：16，自引：1，他引：15  

李延河  侯可军  万德芳  张增杰  乐国良 《地质学报》2010,84(9):1359-1373

前寒武纪条带状硅铁建造(BIFs)是地球早期特有的化学沉积建造类型,记录了当时大气和海洋的化学成分、氧化还原状态及演化。本文系统测定了华北地台条带状硅铁建造的硫硅氧同位素组成。不同时代和不同类型条带状硅铁建造中石英的硅同位素组成非常相似,强烈亏损30Si,δ30SiNBS-28大部分位于-2.0‰～-0.3‰之间,平均-0.8‰;硅铁建造中石英的δ18OV-SMOW相对较高,8.1‰～21.5‰,平均13.9‰;二者均与现代海底黑烟囱、泉华及热水沉积硅质岩的硅氧同位素组成相似。在同一样品中,磁铁矿条带中石英的δ30SiNBS-28普遍低于相邻硅质条带中石英的值,而δ18OV-SMOW刚好相反,反映了硅铁建造沉积时的初始特征。BIFs中硫化物的δ34SV-CDT变化范围很大,-22.0‰～+11.8‰,但大部分集中分布在0值附近。Δ33S=-0.89‰～+1.2‰,显示出了明显的硫同位素非质量分馏特征,说明当时大气氧浓度很低。与火山活动关系密切的Algoma型硅铁建造的Δ33S多为负值,而远离火山活动中心的Superior型硅铁建造的Δ33S多为正值。提出无论是Algoma型,还是Superior型BIFs都是由海底热液喷气作用形成的。富含溶解硅和铁的热水溶液喷发到在海底以后,由于温度突然下降,硅酸H4SiO4在海水中达到过饱和状态,导致SiO2首先沉淀,形成硅质层;随着热水溶液与海水的不断混合,温度不断降低,Eh值不断升高,Fe2+逐渐被氧化生成Fe3+随后沉淀,形成富铁层。一套硅铁韵律层代表了一次大的海底喷气活动;海底热液喷气的周期性活动形成了规律性的硅铁韵律层。BIFs的广泛分布和硫同位素非质量分馏效应的普遍存在,表明当时大气氧水平很低,可能不足现在氧水平的1‰;火山和海底喷气活动非常强烈,海水温度较高,呈酸性,pH值在3.0～5.5之间;海洋中可溶解硅H4SiO4和Fe2+的浓度很高;而可溶硫酸盐的浓度极低,1mM。早元古代(1.8Ga)以后海洋硫酸盐浓度升高,由富铁海洋转化为富硫酸盐的海洋,是造成BIFs消失的根本原因。大规模火山喷发和海底喷气活动对海洋的成分和氧化还原状态影响很大,使海洋的氧化时间较大气至少推迟了6亿年。  相似文献   

The photochemical model of Titan’s atmosphere and ionosphere: A version without hydrodynamic escape     

Vladimir A. Krasnopolsky 《Planetary and Space Science》2010,58(12):1507-1515

There are observational and theoretical evidences both in favor of and against hydrodynamic escape (HDE) on Titan, and the problem remains unsolved. A test presented here for a static thermosphere does not support HDE on Titan and Triton but favors HDE on Pluto. Cooling of the atmosphere by the HCN rotational lines is limited by rotational relaxation above 1100 km and self-absorption below 900 km on Titan. HDE can affect the structure and composition of the atmosphere and its evolution. Hydrocarbon, nitrile, and ion chemistries are strongly coupled on Titan, and attempts to calculate them separately may result in significant errors. Here we apply our photochemical model of Titan’s atmosphere and ionosphere to the case of no hydrodynamic escape. Our model is still the only after-Cassini self-consistent model of coupled neutral and ion chemistry. The lack of HDE is a distinct possibility, and comparing models with and without HDE is of practical interest. The mean difference between the models and the neutral and ion compositions observed by INMS are somewhat better for the model with HDE. A reaction of NH₂ with H₂CN suggested by Yelle et al. (2009) reduces but does not remove a significant difference between the ammonia abundances in the models and INMS observations. Losses of methane and nitrogen and production and deposition to the surface of hydrocarbons and nitriles are evaluated in the model, along with lifetimes and evolutionary aspects.  相似文献   

Saturn's vertical and latitudinal cloud structure 1991-2004 from HST imaging in 30 filters     

Erich Karkoschka  Martin Tomasko 《Icarus》2005,179(1):195-221

We analyzed 134 images of Saturn taken by the Hubble Space Telescope between 1991 and 2004. The images cover wavelengths between 231 and 2370 nm in 30 filters. We combined some 10 million calibrated reflectivity measurements into 18,000 center-to-limb curves. We used the method of principal component analysis to find the main latitudinal and temporal variations in Saturn's atmosphere and their spectral characteristics. The first principal variation is a strong latitudinal variation of the aerosol optical depth in the upper troposphere. This structure shifts with Saturn's seasons, but the structure on small scales of latitude stays constant. The second principal variation is a variable optical depth of stratospheric aerosols. The optical depth is large at the poles and small at mid- and low latitudes with a steep gradient in-between. This structure remains essentially constant in time. The third principal variation is a variation in the tropospheric aerosol size, which has only shallow gradients with latitude, but large seasonal variations. Thus, aerosol sizes and their phase functions inferred at a particular season are not representative of Saturn's atmosphere at other seasons. Aerosols are largest in the summer and smallest in the winter. The fourth principal variation is a feature of the tropospheric aerosols with irregular latitudinal structure and fast variability, on the time scale of months. Spherical aerosols do not display the spectral characteristic of that feature. We suspect that variations in the shape of aerosols may play a role. We found a spectral feature of the imaginary index of aerosols, which darkens them near 400 nm wavelength. While we can describe Saturn's variations quite accurately, our presented model of Saturn's average atmosphere is still uncertain due to possible systematic offsets in methane absorption data and limitations of the knowledge about the shape of aerosols. In order to compare our results with those from comparable investigations, which used less than 30 filters, we fit models to spectral subsets of our data. We found very different best-fitting models, depending on the subset of filters, indicating a high sensitivity of results on the spectral sampling.  相似文献   

Jupiter's cyclones and anticyclones vorticity from Voyager and Galileo images     

J. Legarreta  A. Sánchez-Lavega 《Icarus》2005,174(1):178-191

We have measured the internal velocity field in jovian synoptic-scale cyclones and anticyclones by tracking cloud elements in very high spatial resolution images obtained by the Voyager 1 and 2 (in 1979) and Galileo (1996-2000) spacecrafts. In total we have studied 24 different closed vortices (6 cyclones, 18 anticyclones) spanning a latitude range from ∼60° N to 60° S and with East-West sizes larger than ∼2000 km. The tangential component of the velocity as a function of the distance to the vortex center and position angle is used to retrieve the vorticity field. We find that the velocity increases in all the vortices from a nearly quiescent center to a maximum at the vortex periphery, with a record of about 180 m s⁻¹ for the GRS. The vorticity of cyclones and anticyclones increases in general toward their periphery with absolute values in the range from ∼2-14×¹⁰⁻⁵ s⁻¹. There is a marked tendency to increase the vortices vorticity with their latitude location. However the vorticity does not depend on the vortex size, circulation sense, or ambient background meridional wind shear. The vortex Rossby number ranges from ∼0.2 to 0.5. A study of the interaction between the Great Red Spot with other vortices show that the GRS does not change its vorticity upon their absorption. The two White Ovals mergers showed contradictory results, with greater vorticity in the case of BE, but lower vorticity in the case of BA, although data are poorer for this last case. We present the case of a short lived but large coherent cyclone at −59° that was embedded in a weakly anticyclone wind shear domain. We show that jovian vortices do not follow the simple Kida vortex relationship between vorticity and aspect ratio as it has been previously suggested.  相似文献   

Coupling of acoustic waves to clouds in the jovian troposphere     

Patrick Gaulme  Benoît Mosser 《Icarus》2005,178(1):84-96

Seismology is the best tool for investigating the interior structure of stars and giant planets. This paper deals with a photometric study of jovian global oscillations. The propagation of acoustic waves in the jovian troposphere is revisited in order to estimate their effects on the planetary albedo. According to the standard model of the jovian cloud structure there are three major ice cloud layers (e.g., [Atreya et al., 1999. A comparison of the atmospheres of Jupiter and Saturn: Deep atmospheric composition, cloud structure, vertical mixing, and origin. Planet Space Sci. 47, 1243-1262]). We consider only the highest layers, composed of ammonia ice, in the region where acoustic waves are trapped in Jupiter's atmosphere. For a vertical wave propagating in a plane parallel atmosphere with an ammonia ice cloud layer, we calculate first the relative variations of the reflected solar flux due to the smooth oscillations at about the ppm level. We then determine the phase transitions induced by the seismic waves in the clouds. These phase changes, linked to ice particle growth, are limited by kinetics. A Mie model [Mishchenko et al., 2002. Scattering, Absorption, and Emission of Light by Small Particles. Cambridge Univ. Press, Cambridge, pp. 158-190] coupled with a simple radiation transfer model allows us to estimate that the albedo fluctuations of the cloud perturbed by a seismic wave reach relative variations of 70 ppm for a 3-mHz wave. This albedo fluctuation is amplified by a factor of ∼70 relative to the previously published estimates that exclude the effect of the wave on cloud properties. Our computed amplifications imply that jovian oscillations can be detected with very precise photometry, as proposed by the microsatellite JOVIS project, which is dedicated to photometric seismology [Mosser et al., 2004. JOVIS: A microsatellite dedicated to the seismic analysis of Jupiter. In: Combes, F., Barret, D., Contini, T., Meynadier, F., Pagani, L. (Eds.), SF2A-2004, Semaine de l'Astrophysique Francaise, Les Ulis. In: EdP-Sciences Conference Series, pp. 257-258].  相似文献   

Analysis of Thermal Emission Spectrometer data using spectral EOF and tri-spectral methods     

Xianglei Huang 《Icarus》2003,165(2):301-314

We introduce two new techniques in analyzing martian spectrally resolved radiance data obtained by the Thermal Emission Spectrometer (TES): spectral empirical orthogonal function (EOF) analysis and the tri-spectral algorithm. Spectral EOF analysis allows us to obtain the variability of spectra and associated temporal and spatial patterns. The case study with TES 20° S-20° N data shows that the first principal component (PC1) dominates the total variance and is associated with surface or near-surface brightness temperature variations. The PC2 is associated with atmospheric variability, and a negative correlation between dust and ice absorptions can be clearly seen over many regions. The annual cycle is a major component of the PC1 temporal patterns. The fingerprint of the dust storm can be clearly seen in the PC2 temporal patterns in most areas except the highlands. Spectral EOF can be used for validation of the variability of martian GCMs. The tri-spectral algorithm is based on the differences between three bands (dust, ice and a weak CO₂ absorption band) to distinguish spectra sampled in different situations: water ice cloud, dust, and surface anisothermality. We use a line-by-line radiative transfer model coupled with multiple scattering to investigate the sensitivity of this algorithm to dust and ice optical depth as well as surface emissivity. The comparisons between results of this algorithm and the TES team's retrieved dust and ice opacity are consistent over all studied periods except during the peak of the dust storm. Our algorithm is complementary to the more sophisticated TES retrieval and can be used to screen large amounts of data to get an overview.  相似文献