Physics
Scientific paper
Jun 1991
adsabs.harvard.edu/cgi-bin/nph-data_query?bibcode=1991georl..18.1055c&link_type=abstract
Geophysical Research Letters (ISSN 0094-8276), vol. 18, June 1991, p. 1055-1058.
Physics
10
Abundance, Carbon Dioxide, Carbon Monoxide, Mars Atmosphere, Photochemical Reactions, Aerosols, Reaction Kinetics, Solar Cycles
Scientific paper
The present study treats a characteristic of the photochemistry of carbon compounds on Mars which is implicit in earlier models but not yet discussed in detail; namely, the intrinsic instability of the equilibrium abundance of CO. From a detailed study of feedbacks, damping times of CO fluctuations are found to be long, 2 to 10 times larger than its photochemical lifetime (about 3 yr). Although small variations of the production and loss rates of CO theoretically yield large variations of its equilibrium abundance, significant variations are improbable. Small seasonal and solar-cycle fluctuations (+ or - 10 percent) are expected. The plausibility of latitudinal gradients is enhanced as a result of the present work. The arguments presented can help promote the understanding of the CO depletion detected from the Soviet Phobos 2 spacecraft above the big volcanoes.
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