Observations And Models Of Aerosols In The Atmospheres Of The Jovian Planets

[9417368 . Tomasko] PI和他的合作者提议继续他们对土卫六、土星和天王星大气中的气溶胶和云结构的研究。目的是确定这三个行星体的光学特性，它们大气中存在的云和气溶胶粒子的垂直和水平分布，以及大气微物理学。这些数据将通过地面观测和HST观测获得。通过观察和建模，研究人员希望提高我们对这些天体大气组成和化学的认识；以及云和气溶胶粒子如何与太阳和热辐射相互作用，从而改变大气热平衡，影响大气动力学，控制太阳和行星辐射的散射和发射。提出的研究是及时的，因为1995/96年土星环的平面交叉（这实际上消除了光环通常的光污染，直到2038年才会重复）；它的广泛性在于它的多观测站数据采集计划；而且，尽管它关注的是三个完全不同的行星体，但它有一个统一的主题，即关注云和气溶胶颗粒对大气结构和演变的影响。

9417368 Tomasko The PI and his collaborators propose to continue with their study of aerosols and cloud structures in the atmospheres of Titan, Saturn, and Uranus. The objective is to determine the optical properties of those three planetary bodies, the vertical and horizontal distributions of the cloud and aerosol particles present in their atmospheres, and the atmospheric microphysics. The data will be obtained through ground-based and HST observations. From the observations and modeling, the investigators expect to improve our knowledge of the composition and chemistry of the bodies' atmospheres; and of how cloud and aerosol particles interact with solar and thermal radiation to modify the atmospheric heat balance, affect the atmospheric dynamics, and control the scattering and emission of solar and planetary radiation. The proposed research is timely because of the plane-crossing of Saturn's rings in 1995/96 (which virtually eliminates the usual light pollution by the rings and which will not repeat until 2038); it is broad because of its mutli-observatory data acquisition plan; and, despite its focus on three rather different planetary bodies, it has a unifying theme through its focus on the effects of cloud and aerosol particles on atmospheric structure and evolution.