Surface-Atmosphere Interaction Processes on the Icy Satellites io and Triton

Details Surface-Atmosphere Interaction Processes on the Icy Satellites io and Triton Surface-Atmosphere Interaction Processes on the Icy Satellites io and Triton

Jan 1995

adsabs.harvard.edu/cgi-bin/nph-data_query?bibcode=1995phdt........16m&link_type=abstract

Thesis (PH.D.)--UNIVERSITY OF COLORADO AT BOULDER, 1995.Source: Dissertation Abstracts International, Volume: 56-09, Section: B,

Physics

2

Jupiter, Neptune

Scientific paper

We have investigated sublimation-related processes and their effects on Io and Triton, which are satellites of Jupiter and Neptune, respectively. Sublimation and diffusion of SO_2 within the highly porous (~85%) surface of Io produces evolution of the thermophysical properties over timescales of a few to several hundred diurnal periods, depending on location and surface properties. For a sealed surface (e.g., by a dust mantle), SO_2 vapor cannot diffuse out of the surface and diffusion drives SO_2 to depth. SO_2 redistribution reduces thermal inertia near the surface while the thermal inertia is enhanced at depth, consistent with the observations of Sinton and Kaminski (1988), which established that high-inertia material covered by a surface layer of relatively-low inertia material covers about ~20% of Io's surface area. Near -surface SO_2 depletion may also produce the very low inertia material covering the bulk of Io's surface. Io's observed appearance, SO _2 distribution, and thermal inertia structure are also consistent with evolution of an unmantled surface through exchange of SO_2 with a relatively thin volcanic atmosphere but not with a thick atmosphere generated by global-scale SO_2 surface frost sublimation. A tenuous atmosphere may be maintained in sublimation equilibrium with subsurface frosts over the bulk of the surface, as suggested by Matson and Nash (1983), but with a higher surface pressure than previously predicted. Our research on buoyant plumes on Triton outlines constraints on the initial velocities and entrainment conditions required to produce kilometer-scale plumes. There exists a critical initial vertical speed below which convective cells do not behave as coherent plumes. Low-velocity plume models, such as the dust devil model of Ingersoll and Tryka (1990) and our own methane sublimation model (Meade and Jakosky, 1992) are excluded, and high-velocity plume models such as the solid-state greenhouse model (Smith et al., 1989; Kirk et al., 1990, Brown et al., 1990) are favored. Similar surface and atmospheric properties on Pluto suggests that high-velocity plumes could exist on that planet as well.

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