Uranus&' Stratospheric HCl Upper Limit from Herschel/SPIRE
Abstract
Herschel/SPIRE observations of Uranus are used to search for stratospheric hydrogen chloride (HCl) emission at 41.74 cm-1. HCl was not detected and instead 3σ upper limits were determined; <6.2 ppb (<2.0 × 1014 molecules cm-2) for a 0.1 mbar step profile and <0.40 ppb (<1.2 × 1014 molecules cm-2) for a 1 mbar step profile. HCl is expected to have an external source and these upper limits are consistent with abundances of other external species (CO, H2O, CO2) and a solar composition source. * Herschel is an ESA space observatory with science instruments provided by European-led Principal Investigator consortia and with important participation from NASA.
- Publication:
-
Research Notes of the American Astronomical Society
- Pub Date:
- October 2020
- DOI:
- 10.3847/2515-5172/abc565
- arXiv:
- arXiv:2011.01910
- Bibcode:
- 2020RNAAS...4..191T
- Keywords:
-
- Uranus;
- Outer planets;
- Atmospheric composition;
- Planetary science;
- 1751;
- 1191;
- 2120;
- 1255;
- Astrophysics - Earth and Planetary Astrophysics
- E-Print:
- 4 pages, 1 figure, accepted for publication in RNAAS 2020