Abundances of Jupiter's trace hydrocarbons from Voyager and Cassini

作者：Nixon C A^*; Achterberg R K; Romani P N; Allen M; Zhang X; Teanby N A; Irwin P G J; F****r F M

来源：Planetary and Space Science, 2010, 58(13): 1667-1680.

DOI：10.1016/j.pss.010.05.008

• Jupiter atmospher
• Atmospheric abundances
• Outer planets
• Infrared spectroscopy
• Abundance retrieval

The flybys of Jupiter by the Voyager spacecraft in 1979 and over two decades later by Cassini in 2000 have provided us with unique datasets from two different epochs allowing the investigation of seasonal change in the atmosphere In this paper we model zonal averages of thermal infrared spectra from the two instruments Voyager 1 IRIS and Cassini CIRS to retrieve the vertical and meridional profiles of temperature and the abundances of the two minor hydrocarbons acetylene (C(2)H(2)) and ethane (C(2)H(6)) The spatial variation of these gases is controlled by both chemistry and dynamics and therefore their observed distribution gives us an insight into both processes We find that the two gases paint quite different pictures of seasonal change Whilst the 2-D cross-section of C2H6 abundance is slightly increased and more symmetric in 2000 (northern summer solstice) compared to 1979 (northern fall equinox) the major trend of equator to pole increase remains For C(2)H(2) on the other hand the Voyager epoch exhibits almost no latitudinal variation whilst the Cassini era shows a marked decrease polewards in both hemispheres At the present time th

• 出版日期2010-11