Broadband Submillimeter Spectroscopy of HCN, NH3, and PH3in the Troposphere of Jupiter |
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| Authors: | GR Davis DA Naylor MJ Griffin TA Clark WS Holland |
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| Institution: | aInstitute of Space and Atmospheric Studies, University of Saskatchewan, 116 Science Place, Saskatoon, Saskatchewan, S7N 5E2, Canadaf1;bDepartment of Physics, University of Lethbridge, 4401 University Drive, Lethbridge, Alberta, T1K 3M4, Canada;cDepartment of Physics, Queen Mary and Westfield College, Mile End Road, London, E1 4NS, England;dDepartment of Physics and Astronomy, University of Calgary, 2500 University Drive NW, Calgary, Alberta, T2N 1N4, Canada;eJoint Astronomy Centre, 660 N. A'Ohoku Place, Hilo, Hawaii, 96720 |
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| Abstract: | We report measurements of the Jupiter brightness spectrum in the 850-μm and 1100-μm atmospheric windows with a spectral resolution of 125 MHz, obtained with a Fourier transform spectrometer on the James Clerk Maxwell Telescope. Three results were obtained. First, the predicted absorption features due to the rotational lines of HCN at 266 and 354 GHz were not detected within our error limits of less than 1%. We establish new upper limits for the HCN abundance in the jovian troposphere for five assumed abundance distributions and for two assumed NH3abundances. The upper limits are 1.7 to 13 times smaller than the abundance value obtained in the only reported detection of HCN in Jupiter prior to the impact of Shoemaker–Levy 9. Second, the continuum brightness temperature spectrum at 850 μm was determined and is in agreement with previous measurements, but has large error bars due to uncertainties in the photometric calibration. We estimate the ammonia abundance in the 1–2 bar region to be 1.7 times solar, but this result is tentative since scattering by NH3cloud particles and absorption by gaseous H2S were neglected in our atmospheric model. Finally, the first rotational line of PH3at 267 GHz was not detected, a result which we demonstrate is consistent with the statistical noise level in these measurements, with current values of the spectroscopic parameters, and with phosphine measurements at other wavelengths. |
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