A methodology to construct a reduced chemical scheme for 2D–3D photochemical models: Application to Saturn

Abstract

We present a methodology to build a reduced chemical scheme adapted to the study of hydrocarbons in the atmospheres of giant planets and Titan. As an example, we have built a reduced chemical scheme, containing only 25 compounds and 46 reactions (including photolysis), which is well adapted to compute the abundance of the main hydrocarbons observed so far in the atmosphere of Saturn (CH 3, CH 4, C 2H 2, C 2H 4, C 2H 6, CH 3C 2H, C 3H 8 and C 4H 2). This scheme gives similar results, within the error bars of the model, as a 1D photochemical model using an initial chemical scheme containing 90 compounds and more than 600 reactions. As a consequence, such a methodology can be used to build a reduced scheme well adapted to future 2D (or 3D) photochemical models and GCMs.