Three-dimensional Numerical Simulations Of Circumplanetary Flow On Io

Details Three-dimensional Numerical Simulations Of Circumplanetary Flow On Io Three-dimensional Numerical Simulations Of Circumplanetary Flow On Io

Sep 2006

adsabs.harvard.edu/cgi-bin/nph-data_query?bibcode=2006dps....38.3004w&link_type=abstract

American Astronomical Society, DPS meeting #38, #30.04; Bulletin of the American Astronomical Society, Vol. 38, p.538

Astronomy and Astrophysics

Astronomy

Scientific paper

We have used a direct simulation Monte Carlo (DSMC) approach to study the circumplanetary flow of the rarefied atmosphere on Io. The simulation improves upon previous two-dimensional axisymmetric calculations of Austin and Goldstein (2000) by including vibrational energy exchange and simulating a fully three-dimensional domain. The ability to execute in parallel has been added, allowing the code to be run on scalable supercomputers. The DSMC method is able to accurately model the rarefied flow which is present over much of Io, especially on the night side. The method uses a representative number of molecules to statistically approximate the collisions and movements of real molecules in the gas. Currently chemical reactions in the gas flow are neglected. The circumplanetary flow develops due to SO2 gas sublimating from the surface frost on warmer sunlit side and then flowing toward the night side where it condenses. The simulation includes only the dominant species, SO2. The SO2 gas cools and accelerates as it expands away from the subsolar point, which causes the flow to become supersonic. A boundary layer develops on the surface which grows until it merges with a standing shock near the terminator. The atmosphere is significantly inflated in the vicinity of the shock. The rotation of Io has also been recently included and results for the steady state solution assuming uniform frost coverage will be presented.

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