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Communication Dans Un Congrès Année : 2017

Atmospheric Bulges on Tidally-Locked Satellites

Apurva Oza
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François Leblanc

Résumé

We use a simple analytic model to examine the spatial distribution of a volatile species in a surface-bounded atmosphere on a rotating object that is tidally-locked to its parent body. Spatial asymmetries in such atmospheres have recently been observed via ultraviolet auroral emissions from the exospheres of the icy satellites Europa and Ganymede. The Hubble Space Telescope observations indicate that these satellites host unique, surface-bounded O2 exospheres which bulge towards dusk. Using a simple 1-D mass conservation balance we examine the nature of the volatile source, the surface temperature profile, the spatial morphology of the loss process, and the adsorption and desorption properties of the surfaces to understand the spatial distribution of the surface-bounded atmosphere for a number of objects. Since the ballistic hop distances are much smaller than the satellite radii, we show that the observed asymmetries at Europa and Ganymede can be simply due to a strongly thermally-dependent source, although asymmetries in the plasma-induced loss could contribute. A key condition for these atmospheric bulges that are shifted towards dusk is the relationship between the rotation rate and the atmospheric loss rate.
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Dates et versions

insu-01665596 , version 1 (16-12-2017)

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Apurva Oza, Robert E. Johnson, François Leblanc. Atmospheric Bulges on Tidally-Locked Satellites. 49th Annual Division for Planetary Sciences Meeting, Oct 2017, Provo, United States. ⟨insu-01665596⟩
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