HR: 1340h
AN: P53B-1249    [Abstracts]
TI: Modeling Minor Constituents of Europa's Atmosphere
AU: * Cassidy, T A
EM: tac2z@virginia.edu
AF: University of Virginia, P.O. Box 400325 University of Virginia, Charlottesville, VA 22904-4325, United States
AU: Johnson, R E
EM: rej@virginia.edu
AF: University of Virginia, P.O. Box 400325 University of Virginia, Charlottesville, VA 22904-4325, United States
AB: A spacecraft orbiting Jupiter's moon Europa, of the sort considered by both ESA and NASA, would provide an opportunity to determine the composition and morphology of its tenuous atmosphere. Europa's atmosphere, though tenuous, has been detected by Earth-based telescopes. Its O₂ atmosphere was detected from Earth orbit and its much thinner alkali atmosphere was detected by ground-based telescopes. Many other species are expected based on surface reflectance spectra, such as H₂O, Sⁿ, SO₂, CO₂, H₂O₂. I will discuss the issues involved in the modeling of these as-yet-undetected components. Previous theoretical studies and observations of the atmosphere produced important conclusions about the surface and its interaction with the Jovian magnetosphere. The modeling and detection of minor components could reveal much more. Of particular interest is the detectability of these species with an orbiting mass spectrometer or more distant light spectrometer.
DE: 6005 Atmospheres (1060)
DE: 6008 Composition (1060)
DE: 6009 Aurorae, airglow, and X-ray emission
DE: 6221 Europa
SC: Planetary Sciences [P]
MN: 2007 Fall Meeting