Comment on “Transport of nonmethane hydrocarbons to Jupiter's troposphere by descent of smog particles” by Donald M. Hunten [Icarus 194 (2008) 616–622

Abstract

The downward transport of nonmethane hydrocarbons, condensed onto solid photochemically produced particles termed “smust,” may indeed be an important process in the methane-rich atmospheres of Jupiter and Titan. However, evidence supporting this mechanism on Jupiter [Hunten, D.M., 2008. Icarus 194, 616–622] is considerably weakened by three new considerations: the ethane mixing ratio does not increase with depth or show a 1-bar minimum, atmospheric characteristics measured by the probe throughout its descent are representative of much higher altitudes in the “normal” jovian atmosphere, and transport models must consider the lower boundary condition imposed by deep thermochemical destruction of nonmethane hydrocarbons. Additionally, ethane was not the most abundant nonmethane hydrocarbon detected by the Galileo Probe Mass Spectrometer (GPMS) near 11 bar, reinforcing previously published findings that some (if not all) of the nonmethane hydrocarbons detected by the GPMS were of instrumental rather than atmospheric origin.