Cloud base levels for Jupiter and Venus and the heteromolecular nucleation theory |
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| Authors: | D Stauffer CS Kiang |
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| Institution: | Physics Department, Clark College, Atlanta, Georgia 30314, USA |
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| Abstract: | For purified binary gas mixtures like NH3H2O or HClH2O, partial pressures appreciably greater than the two saturation partial pressures are needed to condense the gas mixture into small solution droplets (“homogeneous hetero-molecular nucleation”). Thus without foreign nuclei, clouds are not as easily formed as in the theories of Lewis; the latter should be valid only if large condensation nuclei are available. We calculate here from classical homogeneous heteromolecular nucleation theory the threshold partial pressures necessary to achieve droplet nucleation for the gas mixtures NH3H2O (Jupiter,…), HClH2O (Venus), H2SO4H2O (Venus), and C2H5OHH2O (laboratory). In the last case, theory and experiment agree satisfactorily. If no “dust” particles are available as condensation nuclei, then we expect in Jupiter's atmosphere the cloud base level to be around 40 km above the 400K level instead of 10–25 km in Lewis' models (1969) (similar upward shifts for the outer Jovian planets). For Venus, our corrections make the formation of HClH2O clouds less probable for the 60-km layer at 0°C. If H2SO4 is formed by (photo-)chemical oxidation of SO2 and if clouds are formed at that level where the H2SO4 production is largest, then the cloud base levels for H2SO4H2O mixture clouds will not be shifted by our nucleation effects. For more reliable predictions, one needs more accurate data on the water vapor content of the planetary atmospheres and laboratory experiments testing the theoretically predicted nucleation behavior of these gaseous mixtures. |
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