Io's atmosphere - Pressure control by regolith cold trapping and surface venting

Details Io's atmosphere - Pressure control by regolith cold trapping and surface venting Io's atmosphere - Pressure control by regolith cold trapping and surface venting

Jun 1983

adsabs.harvard.edu/cgi-bin/nph-data_query?bibcode=1983jgr....88.4771m&link_type=abstract

Journal of Geophysical Research (ISSN 0148-0227), vol. 88, June 1, 1983, p. 4771-4783.

Physics

62

Air Land Interactions, Atmospheric Pressure, Io, Regolith, Satellite Atmospheres, Satellite Surfaces, Atmospheric Composition, Atmospheric Models, Electron Density Profiles, Polar Caps, Porosity, Sulfur Dioxides, Thermophysical Properties, Trapping, Venting, Jupiter, Satellites, Io, Atmosphere, Pressure, Regolith, Surface, Entrapment, Venting, Models, Porosity, Sulfur Dioxide, Temperature

Scientific paper

A new model for the basal pressure of Io's atmosphere is developed. This model takes into account the previously ignored fact that much of Io's surface has very high porosity, typically about 90 pct. Such porosity allows efficient subsurface cold trapping of atmospheric gases which tends to keep ambient surface pressures very low. SO2 is the only gas identified on Io, and the basal pressures for atmospheric models are usually pegged to local surface temperature via the SO2 vapor pressure equilibrium curve. Near Io's subsolar point the pressure in equilibrium with a surface SO2 frost deposit is about 1/10,000,000th bar. Porous surface models of the type developed invoke equilibrium with the colder, subsurface permafrost (at about 3-cm depth) and yield pressures of about 1/10 to the 12th bar. The subsurface cold trapping model explains many but not all observations relevant to Io's atmosphere. The new subsurface cold trapping model and the earlier surface frost equilibrium model, when taken together, provide lower and upper limits, respectively, on the basal SO2 pressure of Io's atmosphere.

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