Volcanic gas plumes’ effect on the spectrum of Venus
Icarus 438 (2025)
Abstract:
Venus is home to thousands of volcanoes, with a wide range of volumes and sizes. Its surface is relatively young, with a temperature of approximately 735 K and an atmosphere of 92 bar. Past and possible ongoing volcanic outgassing is expected to provide a source to the sustenance of this massive atmosphere, dominated by CO2 and SO2. The lower atmosphere can be investigated in the near-infrared transparency windows on the nightside, such as the 2.3μm thermal emission window, which provides a chance of detection of species with volcanic origin, such as water vapor. The Planetary Spectrum Generator was used to simulate the nightside 2.3μm thermal emission window of Venus. We simulated the effect of a volcanic gas plume rising to a ceiling altitude, for species such as H2O, CO, OCS, HF and SO2. The sensitivity of the radiance spectrum at different wavelengths was explored as an attempt to qualitatively access detection for future measurements of both ground-based and space-instrumentation. We conclude from our qualitative analysis that for the H2O, CO and OCS plumes simulated there is potential to achieve a detection in the future, given a minimum required signal-to-noise ratio of 50. For SO2 and HF plumes, a higher signal-to-noise ratio would be needed.AGNI: A radiative-convective model for lava planet atmospheres
Journal of Open Source Software The Open Journal 10:109 (2025) 7726-7726
Escaping Helium and a Highly Muted Spectrum Suggest a Metal-enriched Atmosphere on Sub-Neptune GJ 3090 b from JWST Transit Spectroscopy
The Astrophysical Journal Letters American Astronomical Society 985:1 (2025) l10
Seasonal Evolution of Titan’s Stratospheric Tilt and Temperature Field at High Resolution from Cassini/CIRS
The Planetary Science Journal IOP Publishing 6:5 (2025) 114
Abstract:
The Cassini spacecraft observed Titan from 2004 to 2017, capturing key atmospheric features, including the tilt of the middle atmosphere and the formation and breakup of winter polar vortices. We analyze low spectral resolution infrared observations from Cassini’s Composite Infrared Spectrometer (CIRS), which provide excellent spatial and temporal coverage and the best horizontal spatial resolution of any of the CIRS observations. With approximately 4 times higher meridional resolution than previous studies, we map the stratospheric temperature for almost half a Titan year. We determine the evolution of Titan’s stratospheric tilt, finding that it is most constant in the inertial frame, directed 120° ± 6° west of the Titan–Sun vector at the northern spring equinox, with seasonal oscillations in the tilt magnitude between around 2 .° 5 and 8°. Using the high meridional resolution temperature field, we reveal finer details in the zonal wind and potential vorticity. In addition to the strong winter zonal jet, a weaker zonal jet in Titan’s summer hemisphere is observed, and there is a suggestion that the main winter hemisphere jet briefly splits into two. We also present the strongest evidence yet that Titan’s polar vortex is annular for part of its life cycle.The bolometric Bond albedo and energy balance of Uranus
Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society Oxford University Press (OUP) (2025)