PDS: The Planetary Atmospheres Node
Cover Page/Proposal Summary
ROSS-99
NRA 99-OSS-01
Date Due: 5/3/99
|
This proposal shall be used and disclosed for evaluation purposes only, and a copy of this Government notice shall be applied to any reproduction or abstract thereof. Any authorized restrictive notices that the submitter places on this proposal shall also be strictly complied with. Disclosure of this proposal for any reason outside the Government evaluation purposes shall be made only to the extent authorized by the Government. |
| Proposal Type: New Proposal |
| Proposal Category: Dynamics |
| Major Equipment Proposal? No |
| Do you intend to submit an Education/Public Outreach (E/PO) proposal? No |
| Proposal Title: |
| Meteorology of the Outer Planets |
| Abbreviated Proposal Title: |
| Meteorology of the Outer Planets |
| Principal Investigator: |
| Dr. F. Michael
Flasar Code 693 NASA Goddard Space Flight Ctr. Greenbelt, MD 20771 Phone: 301-286-3071 Fax: 301-286-0212 E-mail: F.M.Flasar@gsfc.nasa.gov |
| Signature | Date |
| _____________________________________ | ____________ |
| Co-Investigators and Collaborators: | |||
| Type | Name | Affiliation | |
| Sci Co-I | Dr. Paul N. Romani | GSFC | paul.n.romani@gs fc.nasa.gov |
| Sci Co-I | Dr. Barney J. Conrath | Cornell | barney@chrys e.gsfc.nasa.gov |
| Sci Co-I | Dr. Paul J. Schinder | Cornell | paul.schind er@gsfc.nasa.gov |
| Sci Co-I | Dr. Richard K. Achterberg | SSAI | richard.k.ac hterberg@gsfc.nasa.gov |
Proposal Summary:
Analysis of spacecraft and ground-based data, combined with theoretical modeling, addresses the following objectives: 1) Understand the source of the discrepancies between the He abundances of Jupiter and Saturn obtained from combined Voyager radio-occultation and IRIS data, and the abundances obtained from in situ measurements by the Galileo probe in Jupiter's atmosphere and by direct inversion of IRIS Saturn spectra; use this understanding to assess the reliability of the Voyager He abundance determinations of all the giant planets, as well as that for Saturn derived from Cassini. This entails a reanalysis of the open-loop recordings of the Voyager radio occultation soundings, beginning with Saturn. 2) Use improved retrievals of temperature, para hydrogen, ammonia relative humidity, and infrared cloud opacities to diagnostically characterize the zonal mean circulation, planetary-scale zonal structure, and localized meteorological features of Jupiter. This involves, first, improved retrievals of cloud opacity and ammonia abundances from IRIS Jupiter spectra and, second, dynamical analyses of the temperature and para hydrogen fields already retrieved, for example, calculation of the diabatic circulation and modeling of observed wave structure. 3) Develop an inversion algorithm for application to microwave spectra of the giant planets' atmospheres, to determine the information content of the spectra and to retrieve profiles of relative humidity of condensable absorbers. 4) Investigate the photochemical-dynamical interaction in Titan's stratosphere, particularly as it bears on the enhancement of hydrocarbons and nitriles in the north polar region and the apparent circumpolar vortex that was observed by Voyager. This consists of photochemical modeling to place limits on the local meridional circulation. Simple models of waves, e.g., ray tracing, will be used to study wave ducting and breaking, and assess the effect of waves on the circumpolar vortex.
