Astronomy and Astrophysics – Astronomy
Scientific paper
Jul 1997
adsabs.harvard.edu/cgi-bin/nph-data_query?bibcode=1997dps....29.1506m&link_type=abstract
American Astronomical Society, DPS meeting #29, #15.06; Bulletin of the American Astronomical Society, Vol. 29, p.993
Astronomy and Astrophysics
Astronomy
Scientific paper
The recent ISO detection of H_2O on Saturn, Uranus, and Neptune, and CO_2 on Saturn and Neptune (Feuchtgruber et al. 1996, IAU Circular 6514) raises many intriguing possibilities concerning sources of oxygen in outer-planetary atmospheres. One possibility is that the oxygen is supplied from interplanetary dust particles (IDP's) that are constantly raining down into all the atmospheres of the solar system. A one-dimensional model of photochemistry and vertical transport is used in conjunction with a meteoroid ablation model to determine the effects of incoming IDP's on photochemistry and aerosol formation in outer planetary atmospheres; predictions regarding Jupiter and Saturn will be emphasized. Preliminary results suggest that IDP influx will have a profound effect on atmospheric chemistry. Oxygen atoms supplied to the stratosphere from the photolysis of ablated water molecules can react with CH_3 to form formaldehyde (H_2CO), which is then photolyzed to form CO. The CO can then react with an OH radical to form CO_2. The altitude profiles of H_2O, CO_2, and CO will be very different if IDP's comprise the main source of the oxygen: H_2O mixing ratios will peak high in the stratosphere, CO_2 much lower, and CO somewhere in between. Secondly, water photolysis provides an abundant source of H atoms, which greatly speed up the conversion of C_2H_2 to C_2H_6 in the lower stratospheres of the outer planets; therefore, IDP influx causes a dramatic reduction in the C_2H_2 (and also C_2H_4) abundance on the outer planets. Finally, water supplied from IDP's will condense in the stratospheres of the outer planets and have a major effect on the production and evolution of the stratospheric aerosol layers. Model predictions will be compared with observations in order to provide constraints on the flux of interplanetary debris in the outer solar system.
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