No abstract

We aim at investigating whether the chemical composition of the outer region of the protosolar nebula can be consistent with current estimates of the elemental abundances in the ice giants. To do so, we use a self-consistent evolutionary disc and transport model to investigate the time and radial distributions of H 2 O, CO, CO 2 , CH 3 OH, CH 4 , N 2 and H 2 S, i.e. the main O-, C-, N and S-bearing volatiles in the outer disc. We show that it is impossible to accrete a mixture composed of gas and solids from the disc with a C/H ratio presenting enrichments comparable to the measurements (approx. 70 times protosolar). We also find that the C/N and C/S ratios measured in Uranus and Neptune are compatible with those acquired by building blocks agglomerated from solids condensed in the 10–20 AU region of the protosolar nebula. By contrast, the presence of protosolar C/N and C/S ratios in Uranus and Neptune would imply that their building blocks agglomerated from particles condensed at larger heliocentric distances. Our study outlines the importance of measuring the elemental abundances in the ice giant atmospheres, as they can be used to trace the planetary formation location, the origin of their building blocks and/or the chemical and physical conditions of the protosolar nebula. This article is part of a discussion meeting issue ‘Future exploration of ice giant systems’.

[1] We present here methods developed for the retrieval of air temperature profiles in the Venusian mesosphere from the absolute radiances measured by the Visual and Infrared Thermal Imaging Spectrometer (VIRTIS) on board the Venus Express satellite. The infrared M channel of the instrument acquires multispectral images between 1000 and 5000 nm. In nighttime measurements, radiance in the range 3800-5000 nm is dominated by the thermal emission and absorption by the clouds and carbon dioxide. Since the latter is the main atmospheric component, it is possible to exploit the strong variability of its opacity in this spectral range, as resolved by the instrument, to reconstruct the vertical air temperature profile as a function of pressure. In this context we decided to adopt the Twomey et al. (1977) relaxation scheme. The resulting code was extensively tested on a set of simulated VIRTIS-M data. Comparison of the known input conditions with the results of analysis code allowed us to evaluate the systematic and random errors affecting the retrievals procedures on a statistical basis. The code returns the vertical air temperature profile with an uncertainty of less than 1 K in the region between 70 and 7 mbar (66 and 77 km above the reference surface) and less than 4 K throughout the entire range 100-0.1 mbar (64-95 km). Finally, we present the first examples of the code applied to actual measured Venusian data, demonstrating its capability to achieve a satisfactory modeling of the observations and provide physically reasonable results.

An analysis of near‐infrared emissions on the nightside of Venus observed by the Visible and Infrared Thermal Imaging Spectrometer (VIRTIS) instrument on board Venus Express reveals anomalous cloud particles in the polar regions of Venus. These anomalous particles are found within the centers of polar vortices at both poles and are either larger or different in composition from those elsewhere in the planet. We find no persistent latitudinal variation in cloud properties at low to midlatitudes, nor do we find asymmetry between the southern and northern hemispheres. These findings arise from analysis of the relative brightness of 1.74 and 2.30 μm infrared radiation thermally emitted from the deep atmosphere of Venus. Larger cloud particles cause relatively more attenuation at 2.30 μm than at 1.74 μm, so we use a “size parameter,” m = (I1.74μm)/(I2.30μm)0.53, as a proxy for particle size. This methodology follows that of Carlson et al. (1993), supported by new radiative transfer modeling.

Titan's atmospheric inventory of oxygen compounds (H 2 O, CO 2 , CO) are thought to result from photochemistry acting on externally supplied oxygen species (O + , OH, H 2 O). These species potentially originate from two main sources: (1) cryogenic plumes from the active moon Enceladus and (2) micrometeoroid ablation. Enceladus is already suspected to be the major O + source, which is required for CO creation. However, photochemical models also require H 2 O and OH influx to reproduce observed quantities of CO 2 and H 2 O. Here, we exploit sulphur as a tracer to investigate the oxygen source because it has very different relative abundances in micrometeorites (S/O∼10 −2 ) and Enceladus' plumes (S/O∼10 −5 ). Photochemical models predict most sulphur is converted to CS in the upper atmosphere, so we use Atacama Large Millimeter/submillimeter Array (ALMA) observations at ∼340GHz to search for CS emission. We determined stringent CS 3σ stratospheric upper limits of 0.0074ppb (uniform above 100 km) and 0.0256ppb (uniform above 200 km). These upper limits are not quite stringent enough to distinguish between Enceladus and micrometeorite sources at the 3σ level and a contribution from micrometeorites cannot be ruled out, especially if external flux is toward the lower end of current estimates. Only the high-flux micrometeorite source model of Hickson et al. can be rejected at 3σ. We determined a 3σ stratospheric upper limit for CH 2 NH of 0.35ppb, which suggests cosmic rays may have a smaller influence in the lower stratosphere than predicted by some photochemical models. Disk-averaged C 3 H 4 and C 2 H 5 CN profiles were determined and are consistent with previous ALMA and Cassini/CIRS measurements.