I. Airglow on Mars: Model predictions for the oxygen IR atmospheric band at 1.27 micrometers, the hydroxyl radical Meinel bands and the hydroxyl radical A-X band system. II. Physical and chemical aeronomy of HD 209458b .

摘要

The first part of this dissertation is concerned with model predictions of airglow from the O2 IR atmospheric band at 1.27 mum, the OH Meinel bands and the OH A-X band system in the low-latitude neutral atmosphere of Mars. As an observable feature, airglow provides a means to remotely probe the composition, dynamics and energetics of the Martian atmosphere. The daytime emission from the O2 IR atmospheric band, a direct result of ozone photodissociation, has long been known to be a prominent emission of the Martian airglow. The motivation for pursuing the modelling of the nighttime components of the O2 IR atmospheric band and the OH Meinel bands is the potential of these two processes for characterizing the atomic oxygen profile in the 50-80 km region of the atmosphere. Likewise, the OH A-X band system may be useful to constrain the abundance of the hydroxyl radical on the illuminated side of the planet below 60 km. Both, O and OH are indicators of the photochemical state of the atmosphere. The results reported herein are expected to serve as guidelines for prospective observations of the atmosphere of Mars.;The second part of the dissertation investigates the physical and chemical aeronomy of HD 209458b. The discovery of this extrasolar planet by radial velocity measurements was announced in 2000. Shortly afterwards, the inference of the mean planetary density from transit observations indicated the plausible gaseous nature of the planet. Later in-transit spectrally-resolved photometric observations revealed a cloud of hydrogen, carbon and oxygen atoms extending to a few planetary radii above the surface of the planet, which has been interpreted as evidence for an escaping atmosphere around HD 209458b. At an orbital distance of 0.05 AU, intense EUV stellar irradiation may lead to the massive escape of the atmosphere. In this work, the composition, escape and energy balance of the atmosphere are consistently modelled. Escape rates and abundances of the main hydrogen-, helium-, carbon-, oxygen-, nitrogen- and deuterium-bearing neutral and ion species are reported.