Pubs.GISS: Abstract of Carlson et al. 1987

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Carlson et al. 1987

Carlson, B.E., M.J. Prather, and W.B. Rossow, 1987: Cloud chemistry on Jupiter. Astrophys. J., 322, 559-572, doi:10.1086/165751.

Chemical equilibrium models have been used to interpret observations and constrain models of Jupiter. We reexamine the chemical reactions controlling the composition of the cloud-forming region from 10 to 0.1 bar and the thermodynamic data used in these models. Aqueous reactions decrease the abundances of NH₃ and H₂S; these reactions prevent the transport of CO₂ from deeper levels, with little or no effect on the abundances of CO or weakly basic species such as PH₃. Formation of NH₄SH rapidly removes most of the H₂S, while for a solar N/S ratio the NH₃ abundance decreases by only 20%. If, as suggested by de Pater, the H₂S abundance is enhanced by a factor of 5, formation of NH₄SH would deplete NH₃ by as much as 70% and still be consistent with the observations. Measurements of near solar abundances of NH₃ in the 1 bar region require enhanced abundances at depth to offset depletions due to chemical reactions in the clouds. Best agreement with the observations is found for 2 times solar abundances of N, O, and S relative to H.