Mass fractionation during transonic escape and implications for loss of water from Mars and Venus

Details Mass fractionation during transonic escape and implications for loss of water from Mars and Venus Mass fractionation during transonic escape and implications for loss of water from Mars and Venus

Dec 1986

adsabs.harvard.edu/cgi-bin/nph-data_query?bibcode=1986icar...68..462z&link_type=abstract

Icarus (ISSN 0019-1035), vol. 68, Dec. 1986, p. 462-480. Research supported by the U.S. National Research Council.

Physics

Fluid Dynamics

41

Atmospheric Moisture, Fractionation, Mars Atmosphere, Transonic Flow, Venus Atmosphere, Earth Atmosphere, Fluid Dynamics, Hydrogen, Oxygen, Rare Gases, Velocity Distribution

Scientific paper

Hydrodynamic escape of hydrogen from a planetary atmosphere can remove heavier gases as well as hydrogen, provided that the escape rate is sufficiently large. Analytic approximations for the degree of mass fractionation of a trace species during hydrodynamic escape are compared with accurate numerical solutions for the case of transonic outflow. The analytic approximations are most accurate when the ratio of molecular weights of the heavier and lighter constituents is large so that nonlinear terms in the momentum equation for the heavy constituent become small. The simplest analytic formula is readily generalized to the case where a heavy constituent is also a major species. Application of the generalized formula to hypothetical episodes of hydrodynamic escape from Venus and Mars suggests that both hydrogen and oxygen could have escaped; thus, substantial quantities of water may have been lost without the need to oxidize large amounts of the crust.

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