Improved Design of an Advanced Ice Giants Net Flux Radiometer

Space Science Reviews 220:1 (2024)

Authors:

S Aslam, SB Calcutt, T Hewagama, PG Irwin, C Nixon, G Quilligan, MC Roos-Serote, G Villanueva

Abstract:

In this paper, the improved design of an Ice Giants Net Flux Radiometer (IG-NFR), for inclusion as a payload on a future Uranus probe mission, is given. IG-NFR will measure the net radiation flux, in seven spectral bands, each with a 10° Field-Of-View (FOV) and in five viewing angles as a function of altitude. Net flux measurements within spectral filter bands, ranging from solar to far-infrared, will help derive radiative heating and cooling profiles, and will significantly contribute to our understanding of the planet’s atmospheric heat balance and structure, tropospheric 3-D flow, and compositions and opacities of the cloud layers. The IG-NFR uses an array of non-imaging Winston cones integrated to a matched thermopile detector Focal Plane Assembly (FPA), with individual bandpass filters and windows, housed in a vacuum micro-vessel. The FPA thermopile detector signals are read out in parallel mode, amplified and processed by a multi-channel digitizer application specific integrated circuit (MCD ASIC) under field programmable gate array (FPGA) control. The vacuum micro-vessel rotates providing chopping between FOV’s of upward and downward radiation fluxes. This unique design allows for small net flux measurements in the presence of large ambient fluxes and rapidly changing temperatures during the probe descent to ≥10 bar pressure.

Evidence of rapid hydrogen chloride uptake on water ice in the atmosphere of Mars

Icarus Elsevier 411 (2024) 115960

Authors:

M Luginin, A Trokhimovskiy, B Taysum, Aa Fedorova, O Korablev, Ks Olsen, F Montmessin, F Lefèvre

Abstract:

In 2020, hydrogen chloride (HCl) in the gas phase was discovered in the atmosphere of Mars with the Atmospheric Chemistry Suite (ACS) onboard the Trace Gas Orbiter (TGO) mission (Korablev et al., 2021). Its volume mixing ratio (VMR) shows a seasonal increase of up to 5 ppbv during the perihelion season, followed by a sudden drop to undetectable levels, contradicting modelling estimates of the HCl lifetime of several months. In the Earth's stratosphere, heterogeneous uptake of HCl onto water ice is known to be a major sink for this species. This reaction is now also considered when modelling HCl abundances in the Martian atmosphere. In this work, we use simultaneous measurements of water ice and HCl obtained by the ACS instrument to find particular structures in the vertical profiles as detached gas layers at ice-free altitudes (“ice-holes”). From these particular examples we conclude that the heterogeneous uptake of HCl onto water ice operates on Mars and is a fast mechanism regulating the HCl abundance in the atmosphere of Mars.

Improved design of an advanced Ice Giants Net Flux Radiometer

Space Science Reviews Springer 220:1 (2024) 5

Authors:

S Aslam, Simon B Calcutt, T Hewagama, Patrick G Irwin, C Nixon, G Quilligan, MC Roos-Serote, G Villanueva

Abstract:

In this paper, the improved design of an Ice Giants Net Flux Radiometer (IG-NFR), for inclusion as a payload on a future Uranus probe mission, is given. IG-NFR will measure the net radiation flux, in seven spectral bands, each with a 10° Field-Of-View (FOV) and in five viewing angles as a function of altitude. Net flux measurements within spectral filter bands, ranging from solar to far-infrared, will help derive radiative heating and cooling profiles, and will significantly contribute to our understanding of the planet’s atmospheric heat balance and structure, tropospheric 3-D flow, and compositions and opacities of the cloud layers. The IG-NFR uses an array of non-imaging Winston cones integrated to a matched thermopile detector Focal Plane Assembly (FPA), with individual bandpass filters and windows, housed in a vacuum micro-vessel. The FPA thermopile detector signals are read out in parallel mode, amplified and processed by a multi-channel digitizer application specific integrated circuit (MCD ASIC) under field programmable gate array (FPGA) control. The vacuum micro-vessel rotates providing chopping between FOV’s of upward and downward radiation fluxes. This unique design allows for small net flux measurements in the presence of large ambient fluxes and rapidly changing temperatures during the probe descent to ≥10 bar pressure.

The Comet Interceptor Mission.

Space science reviews 220:1 (2024) 9

Authors:

Geraint H Jones, Colin Snodgrass, Cecilia Tubiana, Michael Küppers, Hideyo Kawakita, Luisa M Lara, Jessica Agarwal, Nicolas André, Nicholas Attree, Uli Auster, Stefano Bagnulo, Michele Bannister, Arnaud Beth, Neil Bowles, Andrew Coates, Luigi Colangeli, Carlos Corral van Damme, Vania Da Deppo, Johan De Keyser, Vincenzo Della Corte, Niklas Edberg, Mohamed Ramy El-Maarry, Sara Faggi, Marco Fulle, Ryu Funase, Marina Galand, Charlotte Goetz, Olivier Groussin, Aurélie Guilbert-Lepoutre, Pierre Henri, Satoshi Kasahara, Akos Kereszturi, Mark Kidger, Matthew Knight, Rosita Kokotanekova, Ivana Kolmasova, Konrad Kossacki, Ekkehard Kührt, Yuna Kwon, Fiorangela La Forgia, Anny-Chantal Levasseur-Regourd, Manuela Lippi, Andrea Longobardo, Raphael Marschall, Marek Morawski, Olga Muñoz, Antti Näsilä, Hans Nilsson, Cyrielle Opitom, Mihkel Pajusalu, Antoine Pommerol, Lubomir Prech, Nicola Rando, Francesco Ratti, Hanna Rothkaehl, Alessandra Rotundi, Martin Rubin, Naoya Sakatani, Joan Pau Sánchez, Cyril Simon Wedlund, Anamarija Stankov, Nicolas Thomas, Imre Toth, Geronimo Villanueva, Jean-Baptiste Vincent, Martin Volwerk, Peter Wurz, Arno Wielders, Kazuo Yoshioka, Konrad Aleksiejuk, Fernando Alvarez, Fernando Alvarez, Carine Amoros, Shahid Aslam, Barbara Atamaniuk, Jędrzej Baran, Tomasz Barciński, Thomas Beck, Thomas Behnke, Martin Berglund, Ivano Bertini, Marcin Bieda, Piotr Binczyk, Martin-Diego Busch, Andrei Cacovean, Maria Teresa Capria, Chris Carr, José María Castro Marín, Matteo Ceriotti, Paolo Chioetto, Agata Chuchra-Konrad, Lorenzo Cocola, Fabrice Colin, Chiaki Crews, Victoria Cripps, Emanuele Cupido, Alberto Dassatti, Björn JR Davidsson, Thierry De Roche, Jan Deca, Simone Del Togno, Frederik Dhooghe, Kerri Donaldson Hanna, Anders Eriksson, Andrey Fedorov, Estela Fernández-Valenzuela, Stefano Ferretti, Johan Floriot, Fabio Frassetto, Jesper Fredriksson, Philippe Garnier, Dorota Gaweł, Vincent Génot, Thomas Gerber, Karl-Heinz Glassmeier, Mikael Granvik, Benjamin Grison, Herbert Gunell, Tedjani Hachemi, Christian Hagen, Rajkumar Hajra, Yuki Harada, Johann Hasiba, Nico Haslebacher, Miguel Luis Herranz De La Revilla, Daniel Hestroffer, Tilak Hewagama, Carrie Holt, Stubbe Hviid, Iaroslav Iakubivskyi, Laura Inno, Patrick Irwin, Stavro Ivanovski, Jiri Jansky, Irmgard Jernej, Harald Jeszenszky, Jaime Jimenéz, Laurent Jorda, Mihkel Kama, Shingo Kameda, Michael SP Kelley, Kamil Klepacki, Tomáš Kohout, Hirotsugu Kojima, Tomasz Kowalski, Masaki Kuwabara, Michal Ladno, Gunter Laky, Helmut Lammer, Radek Lan, Benoit Lavraud, Monica Lazzarin, Olivier Le Duff, Qiu-Mei Lee, Cezary Lesniak, Zoe Lewis, Zhong-Yi Lin, Tim Lister, Stephen Lowry, Werner Magnes, Johannes Markkanen, Ignacio Martinez Navajas, Zita Martins, Ayako Matsuoka, Barbara Matyjasiak, Christian Mazelle, Elena Mazzotta Epifani, Mirko Meier, Harald Michaelis, Marco Micheli, Alessandra Migliorini, Aude-Lyse Millet, Fernando Moreno, Stefano Mottola, Bruno Moutounaick, Karri Muinonen, Daniel R Müller, Go Murakami, Naofumi Murata, Kamil Myszka, Shintaro Nakajima, Zoltan Nemeth, Artiom Nikolajev, Simone Nordera, Dan Ohlsson, Aire Olesk, Harald Ottacher, Naoya Ozaki, Christophe Oziol, Manish Patel, Aditya Savio Paul, Antti Penttilä, Claudio Pernechele, Joakim Peterson, Enrico Petraglio, Alice Maria Piccirillo, Ferdinand Plaschke, Szymon Polak, Frank Postberg, Herman Proosa, Silvia Protopapa, Walter Puccio, Sylvain Ranvier, Sean Raymond, Ingo Richter, Martin Rieder, Roberto Rigamonti, Irene Ruiz Rodriguez, Ondrej Santolik, Takahiro Sasaki, Rolf Schrödter, Katherine Shirley, Andris Slavinskis, Balint Sodor, Jan Soucek, Peter Stephenson, Linus Stöckli, Paweł Szewczyk, Gabor Troznai, Ludek Uhlir, Naoto Usami, Aris Valavanoglou, Jakub Vaverka, Wei Wang, Xiao-Dong Wang, Gaëtan Wattieaux, Martin Wieser, Sebastian Wolf, Hajime Yano, Ichiro Yoshikawa, Vladimir Zakharov, Tomasz Zawistowski, Paola Zuppella, Giovanna Rinaldi, Hantao Ji

Abstract:

Here we describe the novel, multi-point Comet Interceptor mission. It is dedicated to the exploration of a little-processed long-period comet, possibly entering the inner Solar System for the first time, or to encounter an interstellar object originating at another star. The objectives of the mission are to address the following questions: What are the surface composition, shape, morphology, and structure of the target object? What is the composition of the gas and dust in the coma, its connection to the nucleus, and the nature of its interaction with the solar wind? The mission was proposed to the European Space Agency in 2018, and formally adopted by the agency in June 2022, for launch in 2029 together with the Ariel mission. Comet Interceptor will take advantage of the opportunity presented by ESA's F-Class call for fast, flexible, low-cost missions to which it was proposed. The call required a launch to a halo orbit around the Sun-Earth L2 point. The mission can take advantage of this placement to wait for the discovery of a suitable comet reachable with its minimum ΔV capability of 600 ms-1. Comet Interceptor will be unique in encountering and studying, at a nominal closest approach distance of 1000 km, a comet that represents a near-pristine sample of material from the formation of the Solar System. It will also add a capability that no previous cometary mission has had, which is to deploy two sub-probes - B1, provided by the Japanese space agency, JAXA, and B2 - that will follow different trajectories through the coma. While the main probe passes at a nominal 1000 km distance, probes B1 and B2 will follow different chords through the coma at distances of 850 km and 400 km, respectively. The result will be unique, simultaneous, spatially resolved information of the 3-dimensional properties of the target comet and its interaction with the space environment. We present the mission's science background leading to these objectives, as well as an overview of the scientific instruments, mission design, and schedule.

Dynamics and clouds in planetary atmospheres from telescopic observations

Astronomy and Astrophysics Review Springer 31:1 (2023) 5

Authors:

Agustin Sanchez-Lavega, Patrick Irwin, Antonio Garcia Munoz

Abstract:

This review presents an insight into our current knowledge of the atmospheres of the planets Venus, Mars, Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus and Neptune, the satellite Titan, and those of exoplanets. It deals with the thermal structure, aerosol properties (hazes and clouds, dust in the case of Mars), chemical composition, global winds, and selected dynamical phenomena in these objects. Our understanding of atmospheres is greatly benefitting from the discovery in the last 3 decades of thousands of exoplanets. The exoplanet properties span a broad range of conditions, and it is fair to expect as much variety for their atmospheres. This complexity is driving unprecedented investigations of the atmospheres, where those of the solar systems bodies are the obvious reference. We are witnessing a significant transfer of knowledge in both directions between the investigations dedicated to Solar System and exoplanet atmospheres, and there are reasons to think that this exchange will intensity in the future. We identify and select a list of research subjects that can be conducted at optical and infrared wavelengths with future and currently available ground-based and space-based telescopes, but excluding those from the space missions to solar system bodies.