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AGU: Geophysical Research Letters

 

Keywords

  • Europa

Index Terms

  • Planetary Sciences: Solar System Objects: Europa
  • Planetary Sciences: Solid Surface Planets: Interactions with particles and fields
  • Atmospheric Composition and Structure: Exosphere

Abstract

GEOPHYSICAL RESEARCH LETTERS, VOL. 36, L12202, 4 PP., 2009
doi:10.1029/2009GL038636

Exospheric signatures of alkali abundances in Europa's regolith

F. Cipriani

ESA/ESTEC, Noordwijk, Netherlands

F. Leblanc

LATMOS, IPSL, CNRS, Verrières Le Buisson, France

O. Witasse

ESA/ESTEC, Noordwijk, Netherlands

R. E. Johnson

Department of Materials Science and Engineering, University of Virginia, Charlottesville, Virginia, USA

The sodium and potassium exospheres of Europa are described as well as the variations of the Na/K ratio from Europa's surface up to about 20 Europa radii. Observations carried out by M. E. Brown (2001) are used to constrain the Na and K source terms. We find that an average source rates ratio of 17 ± 2 at the surface and loss rates ratio of 26 ± 2 reproduce well the observations. These values are consistent with the conclusions by R. E. Johnson et al. (2002) on its most probable origin. Moreover, we here show that a local increase of the surface Na/K ratio by a factor 2 in a 20° × 30° wide region should induce an observable exospheric signature between 80 and 300 km above the surface. Therefore simultaneous observations of sodium and potassium from an Europa orbiter would allow one to derive important properties of the surface and subsurface of the Galilean moon.

Received 11 April 2009; accepted 19 May 2009; published 20 June 2009.

Citation: Cipriani, F., F. Leblanc, O. Witasse, and R. E. Johnson (2009), Exospheric signatures of alkali abundances in Europa's regolith, Geophys. Res. Lett., 36, L12202, doi:10.1029/2009GL038636.

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