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Science 9 December 1977:
Vol. 198. no. 4321, pp. 1031 - 1034
DOI: 10.1126/science.198.4321.1031-a
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Articles

Carbon Monoxide on Jupiter and Implications for Atmospheric Convection

RONALD G. PRINN 1 and STEPHEN S. BARSHAY 2

1 Department of Meteorology, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge 02139
2 Departments of Chemistry and Earth and Planetary Sciences, Massachusetts Institute of Technology

A study of the equilibrium and disequilibrium thermochemistry of the recently discovered carbon monoxide on Jupiter suggests that the presence of this gas in the visible atmosphere is a direct result of very rapid upward mixing from levels in the deep atmosphere where the temperature is about 1100°K and where carbon monoxide is thermodynamically much more stable. As a consequence the observed carbon monoxide mixing ratio is a sensitive function of the vertical eddy mixing coefficient. We infer a value for this latter coefficient which is about three to four orders of magnitude greater than that in the earth's troposphere. This result directly supports existing structural and dynamical theories implying very rapid convection in the deep Jovian atmosphere, driven by an internal heat source.

Submitted on April 27, 1977
Revised on August 29, 1977


THIS ARTICLE HAS BEEN CITED BY OTHER ARTICLES:
Origin and Evolution of Outer Solar System Atmospheres.
J. I. Lunine and J. I. LUNINE (1989)
Science 245, 141-147
   Abstract »    PDF »
Deuterated Methane Observed on Saturn.
U. FINK and H. P. LARSON (1978)
Science 201, 343-345
   Abstract »    PDF »


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