Kinetics of Suprathermal Atoms and Molecules in the Rarefied Planetary Atmospheres

摘要

Ground-based and space observations have revealed that the upper layers of planetary atmospheres contain both a thermal fraction of neutral atoms and molecules with the mean particle kinetic energy corresponding to the local gas temperature and a suprathermal (hot) fraction of neutral particles with the mean kinetic energy much higher than the local atmospheric temperature. Atmospheric photochemistry and solar wind/magnetospheric plasma inflow play an important role in the formation of suprathermal atoms and molecules in the rarefied atmospheric gas. The current physical and mathematical models of suprathermal atom formation are presented. These models are used to investigate the formation and kinetics of suprathermal carbon, nitrogen, and oxygen atoms in the upper atmospheres of Venus, Earth, and Mars where they are formed in significant amounts due to the atmospheric photochemistry. The role and input of such photochemical reactions as photo- and electron impact dissociation of the main atmospheric constituents as well as in the exothermic ion-molecular reactions including the dissociative recombination of the ionospheric ions into the formation of hot 0 populations in the upper atmospheres of the terrestrial planets are estimated.