Statistics – Applications
Scientific paper
Sep 2009
adsabs.harvard.edu/cgi-bin/nph-data_query?bibcode=2009dps....41.0813m&link_type=abstract
American Astronomical Society, DPS meeting #41, #8.13
Statistics
Applications
Scientific paper
Habitability is a qualitative concept generally defined as the suitability of an environment to support life. Although there are many works related to planetary habitability, there is no practical quantitative definition of habitability. The search for habitable environments in the Solar System and beyond requires a method to quantify and compare their significance. Therefore, this study presents a quantitative approach to assess the habitability of Earth and other planetary bodies. A Quantitative Habitability Model (QH Model) was develop and used to model the terrestrial habitability as a standard for comparison. The QH Model provides a simple ecophysiology-based framework that can be used to predict the potential distribution, abundance and productivity of life in planetary bodies from local to global scales. The simplest QH Model calculates habitability from the environment temperature and relative humidity in gas phases (i.e. atmospheres), and from temperature and salinity in liquid phases (i.e. oceans). The model was used to explain the latitudinal gradients of primary producers on Earth and was validated with ground and satellites observations of net primary productivity (NPP). The potential global habitability for prokaryotes of the upper-troposphere of Venus, the subsurface of Mars, Europa, Titan, and Enceladus was compared. Results show that Enceladus has the zone with the highest mean habitability in the Solar System although to deep for direct exploration. Results also show that the current global terrestrial environment of land areas is not optimized for primary producers, but it was during some paleoclimates. The QH Model has applications in ecosystem modeling, global climate studies including paleoclimates and global warming, planetary protection, and astrobiology. It can also be used to quantify the potential for life of any terrestrial-size extrasolar planet as compared to Earth. This study was partially supported by UPR Arecibo and NASA Astrobiology Institute.
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