Abstract
A lightweight, low-power instrument package to measure, in situ, both (1) the local gaseous environment and (2) the composition and microphysical properties of attendant venusian aerosols is presented. This Aerosol-Sampling Instrument Package (ASIP) would be used to explore cloud chemical and possibly biotic processes on future aerial missions such as multiweek balloon missions and on short-duration (<1 h) probes on Venus and potentially on other cloudy worlds such as Titan, the Ice Giants, and Saturn. A quadrupole ion-trap mass spectrometer (QITMS; Madzunkov and Nikolić, J Am Soc Mass Spectrom 25:1841-1852, 2014) fed alternately by (1) an aerosol separator that injects only aerosols into a vaporizer and mass spectrometer and (2) the pure aerosol-filtered atmosphere, achieves the compositional measurements. Aerosols vaporized <600°C are measured over atomic mass ranges from 2 to 300 AMU at <0.02 AMU resolution, sufficient to measure trace materials, their isotopic ratios, and potential biogenic materials embedded within H2SO4 aerosols, to better than 20% in <300 s for H2SO4 -relative abundances of 2 × 10-9. An integrated lightweight, compact nephelometer/particle-counter determines the number density and particle sizes of the sampled aerosols.
Highlights
With benign Earth-like temperatures and pressures, abundant sunlight, and liquid water, an outstanding issue is whether the clouds of Venus are potentially habitable (e.g., Schulze-Makuch and Irwin, 2002; Schulze-Makuch et al, 2004; Limaye et al, 2018; Seager et al, 2020)
Aerosols vaporized
Understanding both the size distribution and composition of venusian aerosols as a function of altitude/ temperature, along with the composition of attendant atmospheric gases, provides essential information on (1) atmospheric chemistry, including halide/H2SO4 solution chemistry and the sulfur cycle, (2) chemical and potentially biogenic processes responsible for the UV absorption previously observed in the clouds, and (3) radiative balance and solar energy deposition within the clouds that likely play key roles in powering the planet’s super-rotating zonal winds
Summary
With benign Earth-like temperatures and pressures, abundant sunlight, and liquid water (albeit mixed with sulfuric acid), an outstanding issue is whether the clouds of Venus are potentially habitable (e.g., Schulze-Makuch and Irwin, 2002; Schulze-Makuch et al, 2004; Limaye et al, 2018; Seager et al, 2020). Within the cloud particles themselves, the chemistry involves gas-phase and solution-phase reactions and aerosol microphysical effects that may influence the composition and albedo of the cloud. Understanding both the size distribution and composition of venusian aerosols as a function of altitude/ temperature, along with the composition of attendant atmospheric gases, provides essential information on (1) atmospheric chemistry, including halide/H2SO4 solution chemistry and the sulfur cycle, (2) chemical and potentially biogenic processes responsible for the UV absorption previously observed in the clouds, and (3) radiative balance and solar energy deposition within the clouds that likely play key roles in powering the planet’s super-rotating zonal winds
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