Estimates of the Tropospheric Vertical Structure of Neptune Based on Microwave Radiative Transfer Studies

摘要

A radiative transfer model incorporating, among other things, the recently measured centimeter wavelength opacity of H2S, the full line catalog of PH3, and absorption due to CO has been developed to study the tropospheric vertical structure of Neptune. To match radio-telescope observations, subsolar amounts of NH3 and supersolar amounts of H2S are found to be needed, as has been previously noted. To match both the measured microwave emission and the measured opacity at 13 cm and 6.3 bars by Voyager 2, an H2S dominant atmosphere (H2S/NH3 approximately equals 40) with enhanced PH3 (15 x solar) or NH3 supersaturation with respect to the putative NH4SH cloud (400 ppbv) seems to be indicated. Due to the possible importance of PH3 opacity, it is suggested that measurements of its opacity could aid in resolving some of the outstanding ambiguities concerning Neptune's tropospheric structure.