Photochemical control of the distribution of Venusian water

Abstract

We use the JPL/Caltech 1-D photochemical model to solve continuity diffusion equation for atmospheric constituent abundances and total number density as a function of radial distance from the planet Venus. Photochemistry of the Venus atmosphere from 58 to 112km is modeled using an updated and expanded chemical scheme (Zhang et al., 2010, 2012), guided by the results of recent observations and we mainly follow these references in our choice of boundary conditions for 40 species. We model water between 10 and 35ppm at our 58km lower boundary using an SO2 mixing ratio of 25ppm as our nominal reference value. We then vary the SO2 mixing ratio at the lower boundary between 5 and 75ppm holding water mixing ratio of 18ppm at the lower boundary and finding that it can control the water distribution at higher altitudes. SO2 and H2O can regulate each other via formation of H2SO4. In regions of high mixing ratios of SO2 there exists a “runaway effect” such that SO2 gets oxidized to SO3, which quickly soaks up H2O causing a major depletion of water between 70 and 100km. Eddy diffusion sensitivity studies performed characterizing variability due to mixing that show less of an effect than varying the lower boundary mixing ratio value. However, calculations using our nominal eddy diffusion profile multiplied and divided by a factor of four can give an order of magnitude maximum difference in the SO2 mixing ratio and a factor of a few difference in the H2O mixing ratio when compared with the respective nominal mixing ratio for these two species. In addition to explaining some of the observed variability in SO2 and H2O on Venus, our work also sheds light on the observations of dark and bright contrasts at the Venus cloud tops observed in an ultraviolet spectrum. Our calculations produce results in agreement with the SOIR Venus Express results of 1ppm at 70–90km (Bertaux et al., 2007) by using an SO2 mixing ratio of 25ppm SO2 and 18ppm water as our nominal reference values. Timescales for a chemical bifurcation causing a collapse of water concentrations above the cloud tops (>64km) are relatively short and on the order of a less than a few months, decreasing with altitude to less than a few days.