Physics – Space Physics
Scientific paper
Jan 1997
adsabs.harvard.edu/cgi-bin/nph-data_query?bibcode=1997muaa.reptr....c&link_type=abstract
Technical Report, NASA/CR-1997-208226; NAS 1.26:208226 Space Physics Research Lab.
Physics
Space Physics
Planetary Atmospheres, Dust, Energetic Particles, Chemical Reactions, Atmospheric Composition, Solar Radiation, Upper Atmosphere, Io, Ionization, Ionized Gases, Jupiter Satellites, Magnetohydrodynamics, Mathematical Models, Monte Carlo Method, Natural Satellites, Neutral Gases, Ohmic Dissipation, Planetary Ionospheres, Plasma Heating, Resistance Heating, Sputtering
Scientific paper
In order to understand the physical and chemical processes which produce the dust comae in comets and various tenuous planetary and planetary satellite (upper) atmospheres through interactions with their particle, field, and radiation environs, it is necessary analyze remotely observed and spacecraft data with physically meaningful models. With this in mind, we have undertaken a coupled program of theoretical modeling and complementary data analysis regarding the distribution of dust in comets, and the global distributions of neutral and ionized gases in, and escape from, tenuous planetary atmospheres. The nature of the atmospheres and ionospheres of Jupiter's natural satellites Io and Europa and their interactions with their surrounding radiation, and particles and fields environments is a very active and timely field of study. Various kinds of work, depending on different regime-dependent approaches have been adopted in recent years, with the hope of understanding the basic global structure of the atmospheres, and their interactions with solar radiation and with the Jovian plasma torus environment. Io's interaction with Jupiter's corotating plasma torus has been studied for over 25 years. Io has a neutral atmosphere which is probably locally thick but rather uneven across its surface. (See Lellouch 1996 for an excellent review of pre-1996 literature.) The ultimate source for atmospheric gases appears to be the numerous active volcanoes on the surface, moderated by condensation and sublimation from the surface. The energetic particle environment near Io is responsible for the balance of the plasma heating, Joule heating, ionization, and surface d responsible I an atmospheric sputtering, and in some form drives the escape of the neutral atmosphere. The tenuous atmosphere portion of our work involves developing and applying coupled three-dimensional magnetohydrodynamic (MHD) and fully kinetic ion and neutral Direct Simulation Monte Carlo models to describe the upper atmospheres and ionosphere of Jupiter's planetary satellites and their interaction with the corotating plasma torus. This is first being done for Jupiter's moon Io and then for Europa.
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