A Sensitive Search for Traces of Stratospheric NH3, PH3, C2H5D, and CH2C2H2 within Saturn's Beacon

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[6275] Planetary Sciences: Solar System Objects / Saturn

Scientific paper

The development of a hot region in Saturn's stratosphere, the Beacon, coincided with observations of a massive storm outbreak in Saturn's deeper atmosphere. It is thought that these disturbances in the troposphere and stratosphere are related. The severity and size of the deep convective storm along with the increased stratospheric temperatures of the Beacon suggested the possibility that the tropospheric convection was strong enough to inject chemical constituents from the troposphere into the stratosphere by convective overshoot. Using the high spectral resolution capabilities of TEXES, the Texas Echelon cross Echelle Spectrograph, mounted on the NASA Infrared Telescope Facility, IRTF, we performed a sensitive search for NH3 and PH3 emission lines that would indicate the presence of NH3 and PH3 in the stratospheric region of the Beacon. We will present upper limits to the NH3 and PH3 abundances as initial reductions of the data retrieved between July 14th and 19th, 2011 showed no obvious emission features from either gas. The high temperatures within the Beacon also allowed for a detailed search for molecules as yet undetected in the stratospheres of the Outer Planets, but predicted to exist at low abundance levels. Observations centered at 800 cm-1 and 845 cm-1 were retrieved to search for C2H5D and CH2C2H2 emission, respectively. Like the search for NH3 and PH3, initial reductions show no trace of these molecules. We will present a more thorough analysis with an upper limit to the CH2C2H2 abundance within the Beacon. Only a model to data comparison will be made for the C2H5D spectral setting, since a full set of line parameters for this molecule have yet to be recorded.

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