arXiv subjects

Robert E. Johnson

Publications and source records attributed to Robert E. Johnson.

23 records · Page 2Linked to original sources

arXiv2013

Seasonal and radial trends in Saturn's thermal plasma between the main rings and enceladus

A goal of Cassini's extended mission has been to examine the seasonal variations of Saturn's magnetosphere, moons, and rings. Recently we showed that the magnetospheric plasma between the main rings and Enceladus exhibited a time dependence that we attributed to a seasonally variable source of oxygen from the main rings (Elrod et al., 2012). Such a temporal variation was subsequently seen in the energetic ion composition (Christon et al., 2013). Here we include the most recent measurements by the Cassini Plasma Spectrometer (CAPS) in our analysis (Elrod et al., 2012) and modeling (Tseng et al., 2013a) of the temporal and radial dependence of the thermal plasma in the region between the main rings and the orbit of Enceladus. Data taken in 2012, well past equinox for which the northern side of the main rings were illuminated, appear consistent with a seasonal variation. Although the thermal plasma in this region comes from two sources, the extended ring atmosphere and the Enceladus torus that have very different radial and temporal trends, the heavy ion density is found to exhibit a steep radial dependence that is similar for all years examined. Using our chemical model, we show that this dependence requires a radial dependence for Enceladus torus than differs from recent models or, more likely, enhanced heavy ion quenching with decreasing distance from the edge of the main rings. We examine the possible physical processes and suggest that the precipitation of the inward diffusing high energy background radiation onto the edge of the main rings could play an important role.

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arXiv2013

Hybrid fluid/kinetic modeling of Pluto's escaping atmosphere

Predicting the rate of escape and thermal structure of Pluto's upper atmosphere in preparation for the New Horizons Spacecraft encounter in 2015 is important for planning and interpreting the expected measurements. Having a moderate Jeans parameter Pluto's atmosphere does not fit the classic definition of Jeans escape for light species escaping from the terrestrial planets, nor does it fit the hydrodynamic outflow from comets and certain exoplanets. It has been proposed for some time that Pluto lies in the region of slow hydrodynamic escape. Using a hybrid fluid/molecular-kinetic model, we previously demonstrated the typical implementation of this model fails to correctly describe the appropriate temperature structure for the upper atmosphere for solar minimum conditions. Here we use a time-dependent solver to allow us to extend those simulations to higher heating rates and we examine fluid models in which Jeans-like escape expressions are used for the upper boundary conditions. We compare these to hybrid simulations of the atmosphere under heating conditions roughly representative of solar minimum and mean conditions as these bracket conditions expected during the New Horizon encounter. Although we find escape rates comparable to those previously estimated by the slow hydrodynamic escape model, and roughly consistent with energy limited escape, our model produces a much more extended atmosphere with higher temperatures roughly consistent with recent observations of CO. Such an extended atmosphere will be affected by Charon and will affect Pluto's interaction with the solar wind at the New Horizon encounter. Since we have previously shown that such models can be scaled, these results have implications for modeling exoplanet atmospheres for which the energy limited escape approximation is often used.

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arXiv2010

Thermally-driven atmospheric escape: Transition from hydrodynamic to Jeans escape

Thermally-driven atmospheric escape evolves from an organized outflow (hydrodynamic escape) to escape on a molecule by molecules basis (Jeans escape) with increasing Jeans parameter, the ratio of the gravitational to thermal energy of molecules in a planet's atmosphere. This transition is described here using the direct simulation Monte Carlo method for a single component spherically symmetric atmosphere. When the heating is predominantly below the lower boundary of the simulation region, R0, and well below the exobase, this transition is shown to occur over a surprisingly narrow range of Jeans parameters evaluated at R0: λ0 ~ 2-3. The Jeans parameter λ0 ~ 2.1 roughly corresponds to the upper limit for isentropic, supersonic outflow and for λ0 >3 escape occurs on a molecule by molecule basis. For λ0 > ~6, it is shown that the escape rate does not deviate significantly from the familiar Jeans rate evaluated at the nominal exobase, contrary to what has been suggested. Scaling by the Jeans parameter and the Knudsen number, escape calculations for Pluto and an early Earth's atmosphere are evaluated, and the results presented here can be applied to thermally-induced escape from a number of solar and extrasolar planetary bodies.

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arXiv2009

Massive Satellites of Close-In Gas Giant Exoplanets

We study the orbits, tidal heating and mass loss from satellites around close-in gas giant exoplanets. The focus is on large satellites which are potentially observable by their transit signature. We argue that even Earth-size satellites around hot Jupiters may be immune to destruction by orbital decay; detection of such a massive satellite would strongly constrain theories of tidal dissipation in gas giants, in a manner complementary to orbital circularization. The star's gravity induces significant periodic eccentricity in the satellite's orbit. The resulting tidal heating rates, per unit mass, are far in excess of Io's and dominate radioactive heating out to planet orbital periods of months for reasonable satellite tidal $Q$. Inside planet orbital periods of about a week, tidal heating can completely melt the satellite. Lastly, we compute an upper limit to the satellite mass loss rate due to thermal evaporation from the surface, valid if the satellite's atmosphere is thin and vapor pressure is negligible. Using this upper limit, we find that although rocky satellites around hot Jupiters with orbital periods less than a few days can be significantly evaporated in their lifetimes, detectable satellites suffer negligible mass loss at longer orbital periods.

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arXiv2002

Discovery of Soft X-Ray Emission from Io, Europa and the Io Plasma Torus

We report the discovery of soft (0.25--2 keV) x-ray emission from the Galilean satellites Io and Europa, probably Ganymede, and from the Io Plasma Torus (IPT). Bombardment by energetic (>10 keV) H, O, and S ions from the region of the IPT seems the likely source of the x-ray emission from the Galilean satellites. According to our estimates, fluorescent x-ray emission excited by solar x-rays, even during flares from the active Sun, charge-exchange processes, previously invoked to explain Jupiter's x-ray aurora and cometary x-ray emission, and ion stripping by dust grains fail to account for the observed emission. On the other hand, bremsstrahlung emission of soft X-rays from non-thermal electrons in the few hundred to few thousand eV range may account for a substantial fraction of the observed x-ray flux from the IPT.

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