Exosphere Modeling of Proxima b: A Case Study of Photochemical Escape with a Venus-like Atmosphere

Exoplanets orbiting M dwarfs within habitable zones are exposed to stellar environments more extreme than that terrestrial planets experience in our solar system, which can significantly impact the atmospheres of the exoplanets and affect their habitability and sustainability. This study provides the first prediction of hot oxygen corona structure and the associated photochemical loss from a 1 bar CO2-dominated atmosphere of a Venus-like rocky exoplanet, where dissociative recombination of O2 + ions is assumed to be the major source reaction for the escape of neutral O atoms and formation of the hot O corona (or exospheres) as on Mars and Venus. We employ a 3D Monte Carlo code to simulate the exosphere of Proxima Centauri b (PCb) based on the ionosphere simulated by a 3D magnetohydrodynamic model. Our simulation results show that variability of the stellar wind dynamic pressure over one orbital period of PCb does not affect the overall spatial structure of the hot O corona but contributes to the change in the global hot O escape rate that varies by an order of magnitude. The escape increases dramatically when the planet possesses its intrinsic magnetic fields as the ionosphere becomes more extended with the presence of a global magnetic field. The extended hot O corona may lead to a more extended H exosphere through collisions between thermal H and hot O, which exemplifies the importance of considering nonthermal populations in exospheres to interpret future observations.

Atmospheric Loss of Atomic Oxygen during Proton Aurorae on Mars

Abstract— For the first time, the calculations of the penetration of protons of the undisturbed solar wind into the daytime atmosphere of Mars due to charge exchange in the extended hydrogen corona (Shematovich et al., 2021) are used allowing us to determine self-consistently the sources of suprathermal oxygen atoms, as well as their kinetics and transport. An additional source of hot oxygen atoms—collisions accompanied by the momentum and energy transfer from the flux of precipitating high-energy hydrogen atoms to atomic oxygen in the upper atmosphere of Mars—was included in the Boltzmann kinetic equation, which was solved with the Monte-Carlo kinetic model. As a result, the population of the hot oxygen corona of Mars has been estimated; and it has been shown that the proton aurorae are accompanied by the atmospheric loss of atomic oxygen, which is evaluated within a range of (3.5–5.8) × 107 cm–2 s–1. It has been shown that the exosphere becomes populated with a substantial amount of suprathermal oxygen atoms with kinetic energies up to the escape energy, 2 eV. The atomic oxygen loss rate caused by a sporadic source in the Martian atmosphere—the precipitation of energetic neutral atoms of hydrogen (H‑ENAs) during proton aurorae at Mars—was estimated by the self-consistent calculations according to a set of the Monte-Carlo kinetic models. These values turned out be comparable to the atomic oxygen loss supported by a regular source—the exothermic photochemical reactions (Groeller et al., 2014; Jakosky et al., 2018). It is currently supposed that the atmospheric loss of Mars due to the impact of the solar wind plasma and, in particular, the fluxes of precipitating high-energy protons and hydrogen atoms during solar flares and coronal mass ejections may play an important role in the loss of the neutral atmosphere on astronomic time scales (Jakosky et al., 2018).

Ionospheric Plasma Transported into the Martian Magnetosheath

<p>How the heavy ionospheric ions escape the Martian atmosphere is still not solved. Missions such as the Mars Express (MEX) satellite have observed significant heavy ions (O<sub>2<sup>+</sup></sub> and Co<sub>2<sup>+</sup></sub>) on the night side of the terminator. The hot oxygen corona when ionized gives rise to the pickup ions but they are of lighter mass.  With the more comprehensive instrumentation on the MAVEN mission, it is clear that cold heavy ions are transported down the tail of the planet. However, there has not yet been a good explanation of how heavy ions can reach into the Martian sheath in high density concentrations. In December 2020 the MAVEN satellite was observing on the dusk side tailward of the terminator with an orbital configuration allowing the density changes and the ion compositions to be followed. In this presentation the focus is on three subsequent orbits where a channel of heavy ions with high densities reaches out into the sheath. In this presentation we will argue for different possible processes that could explain the observations.</p>

Estimated Supply of Green Open Space is Based on Oxygen Consumption and Micro Temperatures in Caruban City

<p><em>Local governments must provide a public green space for 20% of the total city area. In addition for aesthetic value and beauty that is used as source of public recreation and green space that used to create cooler microclimate temperatures, maintain the balance of oxygen (</em><em>O₂</em><em>) and carbondioxide (</em><em>CO₂</em><em>), reduce pollutants, and help maintain water availability soil. Research aims to analyze and calculate the needs of Caruban City Green Space.</em><em> </em><em>R</em><em>esearch used survey method with purposive sampling technique and secondary data analysis. Temperature analysis used the thom formula, while the analysis the needs of green space with the Geravkis method. Results of study showed that in six places had relatively cooler temperatures ranging from 26-31°C in the afternoon, 26-33°C in the morning, and in the middle of afternoon about 29 to 33°C. Data showed that in one place, namely, Ahmad Yani road showed the temperature about 31-36.5°C was relatively hot. Oxygen demand in 2020 requires a full green space of 133.92 ha. The results of this study are expected to provide recommendations in the application of Spatial Planning Law Number 26 of 2007 concerning spatial planning to improve the comfort of Caruban City dwellings in terms of the air environment.</em></p>

Hydrogen and helium escape on Venus via energy transfer from hot oxygen atoms

ABSTRACT Due to the relatively strong gravity on Venus, heavy atmospheric neutrals are difficult to accelerate to the escape velocity. However, a variety of processes, such as the dissociative recombination of ionospheric O$_2^+$, are able to produce hot atoms which could deliver a significant amount of energy to light neutrals and drive their escape. In this study, we construct a Monte Carlo model to simulate atmospheric escape of three light species, H, H2, and He, on Venus via such a knock-on process. Two Venusian background atmosphere models are adopted, appropriate for solar minimum and maximum conditions. Various energy-dependent and species-dependent cross-sections, along with a common strongly forward scattering angle distribution, are used in our calculations. Our model results suggest that knock-on by hot O likely plays the dominant role in driving total atmospheric hydrogen and helium escape on Venus at the present epoch, with a significant portion contributed from regions below the exobase. Substantial variations are also revealed by our calculations. Of special interest is the modelled reduction in escape flux at high solar activities for all species, mainly associated with the enhancement in thermal O concentration near the exobase at high solar activities which hinders escape. Finally, model uncertainties due to several controlling factors, including the distribution of relevant light species in the background atmosphere, the plane-parallel approximation, and the finite O energy distribution, are evaluated.

Hot Planetary Coronas

This is an advance summary of a forthcoming article in the Oxford Research Encyclopedia of Planetary Science. Please check back later for the full article. The uppermost layers of a planetary atmosphere, where the density of neutral particles is vanishingly low, are commonly called the exosphere or the planetary corona. Since the atmosphere is not completely bound to the planet by the planetary gravitational field, light atoms, such as hydrogen and helium with sufficiently large velocities, can escape from the upper atmosphere into interplanetary space. This process is commonly called Jeans escape, and it depends on the temperature of the ambient atmospheric gas at an altitude where the atmospheric gas is virtually collisionless. The heavier carbon, nitrogen, and oxygen atoms can escape from the atmospheres of the terrestrial planets only through non-thermal processes such as photo- and electron-impact dissociation, charge exchange, atmospheric sputtering, and ion pick-up. Theories of planetary exospheres have been based on ground-based and space observations of emission features such as the 121.6 nm Ly-α and 102.6 nm Ly-β hydrogen lines, the 58.4 nm helium line, and the 130.4 and 135.6 nm atomic oxygen lines. Such observations, together with in situ mass-spectrometer measurements, as at Titan, allow the density and temperature height profiles of the exospheric components to be constructed. The measurements reveal that planetary coronas contain both a fraction of thermal neutral particles with a mean kinetic energy corresponding to the exospheric temperature and a fraction of hot neutral particles with mean kinetic energy much higher than the exospheric temperature. These suprathermal (hot) atoms and molecules are a direct manifestation of the non-thermal processes taking place in the atmospheres. These hot particles lead to the atmospheric escape, determine the coronal structure, produce non-thermal emissions, and react with the ambient atmospheric gas triggering hot atom chemistry. One of the brightest manifestations of these processes is a formation of hot oxygen corona around terrestrial planets. Oxygen atom is one of the lightest among heavy atmospheric species, so it is a best species to form corona, and another important aspect is that it produces a lot of observational evidence. The transport of suprathermal oxygen atoms to exospheric heights leads to the formation of hot oxygen coronas around Venus, Earth, and Mars. It has been well established by both observations and theoretical calculations that hot oxygen is an important constituent in the transition region between upper thermosphere and exosphere at terrestrial planets. The study of the planetary coronas is based on direct observations and numerical simulations. It is a rarefied gas, therefore, production and transport of suprathermal particles into the corona requires solving a Boltzmann equation or a DSMC simulation. The stochastic simulation method had been widely used to investigate the formation, kinetics, and transport of suprathermal particles in the hot planetary coronas. This approach was first used to study the formation of the hot oxygen geocorona, taking into account the exothermic chemistry and the precipitation of magnetospheric protons and high-energy O+ ions from the ring current. It was found that only atmospheric sputtering results in the formation of the escape flux of energetic oxygen atoms, providing an important source of heavy atoms for the magnetosphere and geospace. A stochastic modeling approach was also applied to study the escape of hot oxygen atoms from the upper atmosphere of Mars and Venus; the kinetics and transport of suprathermal atoms and molecules in the hot oxygen corona at Jovian satellite Europa, which is an example of a highly non-equilibrium near-surface atmosphere; and the hot extended corona at Saturnian satellite Titan, which was directly measured by the spacecraft Cassini.