Zonally averaged thermal balance and stability models for nitrogen polar caps on Triton

Details Zonally averaged thermal balance and stability models for nitrogen polar caps on Triton Zonally averaged thermal balance and stability models for nitrogen polar caps on Triton

Sep 1990

adsabs.harvard.edu/cgi-bin/nph-data_query?bibcode=1990georl..17.1773s&link_type=abstract

Geophysical Research Letters (ISSN 0094-8276), vol. 17, Sept. 1990, p. 1773-1776. Research supported by the Project Voyager.

Physics

20

Polar Caps, Satellite Surfaces, Solid Nitrogen, Surface Temperature, Triton, Albedo, Mass Transfer, Time Dependence, Voyager Project

Scientific paper

Voyager four-color imaging data of Triton are analyzed to calculate the bolometric hemispheric albedo as a function of latitude and longitude. Zonal averages of these data have been incorporated into a thermal balance model involving insolation, reradiation, and latent heat of sublimation of N2 ice for the surface. The current average bolometric albedo of Triton's polar caps is 0.8, implying an effective temperature of 34.2 K and a surface pressure of N2 of 1.6 microbar for unit emissivity. This pressure is an order of magnitude lower than the surface pressure of 18 microbar inferred from Voyager data (Broadfoot et al., 1989; Conrath et al., 1989), a discrepancy that can be reconciled if the emissivity of the N2 on Triton's surface is 0.66. The model predicts that Triton's surface north of 15 deg N latitude is experiencing deposition of N2 frosts, as are the bright portions of the south polar cap near the equator. This result explains why the south cap covers nearly the entire southern hemisphere of Triton.

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