Origin and evolution of the Saturn system: Observational consequences

A number of important cosmogonic questions concerning the Saturn system can be addressed with a Saturn-orbiter-dual-probe spacecraft mission. These questions include: The origin of the Saturn system; the source of Saturn's excess luminosity; the mechanism by which the irregular satellites were captured; the influence of Saturn's early luminosity on the composition of its regular satellites; and the origin of the rings. The first two topics can be studied by measurements made from an entry probe into Saturn's atmosphere, while the remaining issues can be investigated by measurements conducted from an orbiter. Background information is provided on these five questions describing the critical experiments needed to help resolve them

Temperature structure of nongrey planetary atmospheres

Temperature structure of nongrey planetary atmosphere

Models of temperature structure and general circulation

Titan has a warm upper atmosphere. Whether it has a warm lower atmosphere and hot surface is an open question. This question is important not only from a purely scientific point of view, but also for assessing the viability of a Titan entry probe

Coevolutionary Dynamics in a Minimal Substrate

One of the central difficulties of coevolutionary methods arises from 'intransitive superiority' - in a two-player game, for example, the fact that A beats B, and B beats C, does not exclude the possibility that C beats A. Such cyclic superiority in a coevolutionary substrate is hypothesized to cause cycles in the dynamics of the population such that it 'chases its own tail' - traveling through some part of strategy space more than once despite apparent improvement with each step. It is often difficult to know whether an application domain contains such difficulties and to verify this hypothesis in the failure of a given coevolutionary set-up. In this paper we wish to elucidate some of the issues and concepts in an abstract domain where the dynamics of coevolution can be studied simply and directly. We define three simple 'number games' that illustrate intransitive superiority and resultant oscillatory dynamics, as well as some other relevant concepts. These include the distinction between a player's perceived performance and performance with respect to an external metric, and the significance of strategies with a multi-dimensional nature. These features alone can also cause oscillatory behavior and coevolutionary failure

Origin and evolution of planetary atmospheres

Spacecraft and groundbased observations of the atmospheres of solar system objects have provided a definition of their present characteristics and have yielded clues about their past history. Table 1 presents a summary of our current knowledge of the atmospheric properties of all the planets, except Pluto, and several satellites. The masses of these atmospheres range from the very miniscule values for the Moon, Mercury, and Io, to the more substantial values for the Earth, Venus, Mars, and Titan, to the very large values for the giant planets, where the atmosphere constitutes a significant fraction of the total planetary mass. The compositions of these atmospheres encompass ones dominated by rare gases (the Moon and Mercury), ones containing highly oxidized compounds of carbon, nitrogen, and sulfur (the outer three terrestrial planets and Io), and ones with highly reduced gases (Titan and the giant planets). What factors account for this enormous diversity in properties

Application of a coupled aerosol formation: Radiative transfer model to climatic studies of aerosols

A sophisticated one dimensional physical-chemical model of the formation and evolution of stratospheric aerosols was used to predict the size and number concentration of the stratospheric aerosols as functions of time and altitude following: a large volcanic eruption; increased addition of carbonyl sulfide (OCS) or sulfur dioxide (SO2) to the troposphere; increased supersonic aircraft (SST) flights in the stratosphere; and, large numbers of space shuttle (SS) flights through the stratosphere. A radiative-convective one dimensional climate sensitivity study, using the results of the aerosol formation model, was performed to assess the ground level climatic significance of these perturbations to the stratospheric aerosol layer. Volcanic eruptions and large OCS or SO2 increases could cause significant climatic changes. Currently projected SS launches and moderate fleets of SST's are unlikely to upset the stratospheric aerosol layer enough to significantly impact climate

A critical test of the electrical discharge model of the Venus microwave emission

Critical test of electric discharge model for Venus microwave emissio

Evaluation differences on Mars

Space science research on elevation differences on Mar

Physical properties of aerosols in Titan's atmosphere as deduced from visible observations

Analysis of the absolute value of Titan's albedo and its variation with increasing phase angle has yielded constraints on the optical properties and average particle size of the aerosols responsible for the scattering of visible light. The real index of refraction of the scattering material lies within the range 1.5 approximately less than nr approximately less than 2.0 and the average particle size is somewhere between 0.2 micrometer and 0.4 micrometer. The amount of limb darkening produced by these models leads to an occultation radius of approximately 2700 km

The case for ice clouds on Venus

Ice cloud analysis for Venus atmospher