Hot carbon densities in the exosphere of Venus

Abstract

The results of calculations of hot carbon densities in the exosphere of Venus are presented. The calculation is a two‐step process. First a two‐stream transport code is used to solve for the distribution function at the exobase, and then these results are used in a Liouville equation solution above the exobase. It is found that generally, photodissociation of carbon monoxide is the largest source of hot carbon atoms in the upper atmosphere of Venus, larger than dissociative recombination of CO+ and significantly larger than the creation of hot carbon through collisions with hot oxygen atoms. It is also found that the high solar activity densities are about 4 times larger than those for the low solar activity case. The results of these calculations are compared with the densities calculated by Paxton [1983].