THEMIS-VIS observations of clouds in the martian mesosphere: Altitudes, wind speeds, and decameter-scale morphology     

T.H. McConnochie  J.F. Bell III  D. Savransky  M.J. Wolff  A.D. Toigo  H. Wang  M.I. Richardson  P.R. Christensen 《Icarus》2010,210(2):545-565

We present measurements of the altitude and eastward velocity component of mesospheric clouds in 35 imaging sequences acquired by the Mars Odyssey (ODY) spacecraft’s Thermal Emission Imaging System visible imaging subsystem (THEMIS-VIS). We measure altitude by using the parallax drift of high-altitude features, and the velocity by exploiting the time delay in the THEMIS-VIS imaging sequence.We observe two distinct classes of mesospheric clouds: equatorial mesospheric clouds observed between 0° and 180° L_s; and northern mid-latitude clouds observed only in twilight in the 200–300° L_s period. The equatorial mesospheric clouds are quite rare in the THEMIS-VIS data set. We have detected them in only five imaging sequences, out of a total of 2048 multi-band equatorial imaging sequences. All five fall between 20° south and 0° latitude, and between 260° and 295° east longitude. The mid-latitude mesospheric clouds are apparently much more common; for these we find 30 examples out of 210 northern winter mid-latitude twilight imaging sequences. The observed mid-latitude clouds are found, with only one exception, in the Acidalia region, but this is quite likely an artifact of the pattern of THEMIS-VIS image targeting. Comparing our THEMIS-VIS images with daily global maps generated from Mars Orbiter Camera Wide Angle (MOC-WA) images, we find some evidence that some mid-latitude mesospheric cloud features correspond to cloud features commonly observed by MOC-WA. Comparing the velocity of our mesospheric clouds with a GCM, we find good agreement for the northern mid-latitude class, but also find that the GCM fails to match the strong easterly winds measured for the equatorial clouds.Applying a simple radiative transfer model to some of the equatorial mesospheric clouds, we find good model fits in two different imaging sequences. By using the observed radiance contrast between cloud and cloud-free regions at multiple visible-band wavelengths, these fits simultaneously constrain the optical depths and particles sizes of the clouds. The particle sizes are constrained primarily by the relative contrasts at the available wavelengths, and are found to be quite different in the two imaging sequences: r_eff = 0.1 μm and r_eff = 1.5 μm. The optical depths (constrained by the absolute contrasts) are substantial: 0.22 and 0.5, respectively. These optical depths imply a mass density that greatly exceeds the saturated mass density of water vapor at mesospheric temperatures, and so the aerosol particles are probably composed mainly of CO₂ ice. Our simple radiative transfer model is not applicable to twilight, when the mid-latitude mesospheric clouds were observed, and so we leave the properties of these clouds as a question for further work.  相似文献   

Analysis of Jupiter’s Oval BA: A streamlined approach     

Michael G. Sussman  Nancy J. Chanover  Ashwin R. Vasavada 《Icarus》2010,210(1):202-210

We present a novel method of constructing streamlines to derive wind speeds within jovian vortices and demonstrate its application to Oval BA for 2001 pre-reddened Cassini flyby data, 2007 post-reddened New Horizons flyby data, and 1998 Galileo data of precursor Oval DE. Our method, while automated, attempts to combine the advantages of both automated and manual cloud tracking methods. The southern maximum wind speed of Oval BA does not show significant changes between these data sets to within our measurement uncertainty. The northern maximum does appear to have increased in strength during this time interval, which likely correlates with the oval’s return to a symmetric shape. We demonstrate how the use of closed streamlines can provide measurements of vorticity averaged over the encircled area with no a priori assumptions concerning oval shape. We find increased averaged interior vorticity between pre- and post-reddened Oval BA, with the precursor Oval DE occupying a middle value of vorticity between these two.  相似文献   

A new analysis of the ESO Very Large Telescope (VLT) observations of Titan at 2 μm     

T. Cours  P. Rannou  A. Hamdouni 《Planetary and Space Science》2010,58(13):1708-1714

We have performed an analysis of ESO Very Large Telescope (VLT) observations of Titan at 2 μm. The data were acquired with the Nasmyth Adaptative Optics System Near-Infrared Imager and Spectrograph (NAOS/CONICA), on the 16th of January 2005, that is 2 days after the landing of the Huygens probe (Hirtzig et al., 2007). The data consist in 21 spectra taken along two diameters of Titan’s disk at wavelengths between 2.03 and 2.5 μm. This range covers a part of the 2 μm methane window and the adjacent band. The data received a preliminary analysis in a recent paper (Negrão et al., 2007), essentially focused on the surface albedo near Huygens landing site. In this work, we perform an in-depth analysis to retrieve information about several aspects: the latitude haze distribution in the stratosphere and in the low atmosphere, the latitudinal variation of the surface albedo and its spectral behaviour. Also, this analysis allowed us to make sensitivity tests on the influence of the scatterer profiles on the retrieved surface albedo and its spectral slope. The news analysis confirms that, as was the case with VIMS observations at the same epoch, the Northern (currently winter) Hemisphere contains more haze than the southern one (Summer Hemisphere). The sensitivity tests show that the scatterer profiles have just a little impact on the surface albedo and its spectral slope. The analysis seems to confirm the presence of H₂O and CH₄ ices.  相似文献   

Oxidation of CO on surface hematite in high CO₂ atmospheres     

John Lee Grenfell  Joachim W. Stock  Stefanie Gebauer 《Planetary and Space Science》2010,58(10):1252-1257

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   

主流海表风场资料在舟山群岛近海的性能评估     

刘紫薇  赵帅康  魏笑然  白晔斐 《海洋与湖沼》2022,53(3):528-537

再分析风场资料已广泛应用于我国舟山群岛海域可再生能源评估、海洋灾害预防决策以及港口运维和船舶运输等涉海发展领域,然而不同业务机构所提供的再分析数据在舟山近海的性能表现不一,严重阻碍了此类数据的有效应用。基于2018年全年单点浮标观测资料,综合评价了舟山群岛近海面(10 m)风场的长期变化趋势,并利用误差分析和风玫瑰图等统计工具对6种主流海表风场再分析资料,包括:ECMWF第五代全球大气再分析数据(the 5th generation ECMWF atmospheric reanalysis,ERA5)、NECP第二版全球高分辨率再分析数据(climate forecast system version 2,CFSv2)、美国宇航局物理海洋学分布存档中心的多卫星融合资料(cross-calibrated multi-platform,CCMP)、日本55年再分析数据(Japanese 55-year reanalysis,JRA-55)、第二版现代研究与应用回顾性分析数据(modern-era retrospective analysis for research and applications version 2,MERRA-2)和ECMWF哥白尼大气监测服务再分析数据(the Copernicus Atmosphere Monitoring Service,CAMS)在时间变化特征上进行了对比与评估。研究表明:在综合性能方面,ERA5对风场的再现能力最优,其次为JRA-55;在要素可信度方面,ERA5对风速的再现情况相对较优,而CFSv2的风向再现情况较好;风场产品在不同季节的模拟能力有所差异;不同风场产品在不同风速区间的重构能力也有所不同;在全年风向分布方面,各再分析资料都存在显著的东向偏差。研究结果为不同应用场景下风场资料的选取提供评估依据,并为进一步开发适用于舟山群岛近海的高精度长周期风场数据产品奠定基础。  相似文献   

青岛陆上观测点的气溶胶光学厚度特征分析及与渤海气溶胶光学厚度的比较   总被引：1，自引：0，他引：1  

马玉娟  刘玉光  李艳芳  刘晓斐 《海洋湖沼通报》2009,(1)

阐述了气溶胶散射对太阳光衰减的影响和对观测数据的统计分析.作者使用手持式五波段太阳光度计和臭氧监测仪对青岛崂山区陆域和渤海海域的大气衰减进行了较长时间的观测.分析表明,对可见光和近红外波段电磁渡的大气衰减贡献最大的是气溶胶散射,气溶胶散射的光学厚度随波长的增大而减小,但是它在大气总光学厚度中占的比例随波长的增大而增加.在青岛崂山区冬季,对应于440nm波长的气溶胶散射光学厚度主要分布在0.4～0.6和1.5～1.6区间,浑浊度系数α主要分布在0.15～0.45区间,埃斯特朗指数β主要分布在1.0～1.4区间.从时间上看,α和β在1d内的变化不大,但逐日变化非常显著.与晴天相比,青岛崂山区冬季雾天的气溶胶散射光学厚度增加了大约一倍,较大的浑浊度系数和较小的埃斯特朗指数表明,雾天的大气具有气溶胶散射的光学厚度大、粒子浓度大和粒径尺度大的特点.通过与海上观测数据的比较可见,青岛崂山区陆地冬季在雾天时的气溶胶分布与渤海夏季时相似,青岛崂山区陆地冬季在晴天无云时的气溶胶分布与渤海秋季时相似.  相似文献   

New cloud activity on Uranus in 2004: First detection of a southern feature at 2.2 μm     

H.B. Hammel  I. de Pater  G.W. Lockwood 《Icarus》2005,175(1):284-288

On 4 July 2004 UT, we detected one of Uranus' southern hemispheric cloud features at K′ (2.12 μm); this is the first such detection in half a decade of adaptive optics imaging of Uranus at the Keck 10-m telescope. When we observed again on 8 July UT the feature's bright core had faded. By 9 July UT it was not seen at K′ and barely detectable at H. The detection and subsequent disappearance of the feature indicates rapid dynamical processes in the localized vertical aerosol structure.  相似文献   

Watching meteors on Triton     

W. Dean Pesnell  J.M. Grebowsky 《Icarus》2004,169(2):482-491

The thin atmosphere of Neptune's moon Triton is dense enough to ablate micrometeoroids as they pass through. A combination of Triton's orbital velocity around Neptune and its orbital velocity around the Sun gives a maximum meteoroid impact velocity of approximately 19 km s⁻¹, sufficient to heat the micrometeoroids to visibility as they enter. The ablation profiles of icy and stony micrometeoroids were calculated, along with the estimated brightness of the meteors. In contrast to the terrestrial case, visible meteors would extend very close to the surface of Triton. In addition, the variation in the meteoroid impact velocity as Triton orbits Neptune produces a large variation in the brightness of meteors with orbital phase, a unique Solar System phenomenon.  相似文献   

Maintenance of equatorial superrotation in the atmospheres of Venus and Titan     

Xun Zhu 《Planetary and Space Science》2006,54(8):761-773

This paper extends Leovy's theory on Venus’ equatorial superrotation by analytically examining additional terms in the mean zonal momentum equation that stably balances the momentum source of pumping by thermal tides. The general analytical solution is applied to the atmospheres of both Venus and Saturn's moon Titan. The main results are: (i) Venus’ equatorial superrotation of 118 m s⁻¹ results primarily from a balance between the momentum source of pumping by thermal tides and the momentum sink of meridional advection of wind shear by horizontal branches of the Hadley circulation; (ii) no solution is found for Titan's stratospheric equatorial superrotation centered at the 1-hPa level; (iii) however, if the main solar radiation absorption layer in Titan's stratosphere is lifted from 1 hPa (∼185 km) to 0.1 hPa (∼288 km), an equatorial superrotation of ∼110 m s⁻¹ centered at 0.1-hPa could be maintained. Titan's equatorial superrotation results mainly from a balance between the momentum source of tidal pumping and the momentum sink of frictional drag.  相似文献   

The 2.9-4.2 micron spectrum of Saturn: Clouds and CH₄, PH₃, and NH₃     

Sang J. Kim  T.R. Geballe 《Icarus》2005,179(2):449-458

We have used synthetic spectra to analyze a medium resolution 2.9-4.2 μm spectrum of Saturn's temperate region observed at UKIRT using CGS4. The synthetic spectra include CH₄, PH₃, and NH₃ lines, for which mixing ratios were adopted from recent Cassini results. The observed absorption features in the spectrum are well accounted for by lines of these molecular species formed 22 +/− 8 km above the 1 bar pressure level at ∼610 mbar. The influence of optically thin haze particles at higher altitudes on the spectrum is not pronounced, with higher spectral resolution probably required to constrain the effects of haze in this wavelength region. Fluorescent line emission by CH₄ in its ν₃ and ν₃+ν₄−ν₄ bands, detected in the 3.2-3.5 μm region, originates between 400 km (∼0.06 mbar) and 800 km (∼0.01 μbar) above the 1 bar level, with peak contributions from the two major contributing bands at 550 km (∼3 μbar) and 700 km (∼0.1 μbar), respectively.  相似文献