Aerosols on the Giant Planets and Titan |
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Authors: | Régis Courtin |
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Institution: | (1) LESIA, CNRS/Observatoire de Paris, 92195 Meudon Pal Cedex, France |
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Abstract: | On the giant planets and Titan, like on the terrestrial planets, aerosols play an important
part in the physico-chemistry of the upper atmosphere (P ≤ 0.5 bar). Above all, aerosols significantly affect radiative transfer
processes, mainly through light scattering, thus influencing the atmospheric energy budget and dynamics. Because there is
usually significant coupling between atmospheric circulation and haze production, aerosols may constitute useful tracers of
atmospheric dynamics.More generally, since their production is directly linked to some kind of energy deposition, their study
may also provide clues to external sources of energy as well as their variability. Finally, aerosols indirectly influence
other processes such as cloud formation and disequilibrium chemistry, by acting either as condensation nuclei or as reaction
sites for surface chemistry. Here, I present a review of observational and modeling results based on remote sensing data,
and also some insights derived from laboratory simulations. Despite our knowledge of the effects of aerosols in outer planetary
atmospheres, however, relatively little is understood about the pathways which produce them, either endogenously (as end-products
of gas-phase photochemical or shock reactions) or exogenously (as residues of meteroid ablation). |
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Keywords: | Aerosols hazes particulates atmospheres giant planets Titan |
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