Phosphine in the Venusian Atmosphere: A Strict Upper Limit from SOFIA GREAT Observations
| Autor: | Cordiner, M. A., Villanueva, G. L., Wiesemeyer, H., Milam, S. N., de Pater, I., Moullet, A., Aladro, R., Nixon, C. A., Thelen, A. E., Charnley, S. B., Stutzki, J., Kofman, V., Faggi, S., Liuzzi, G., Cosentino, R., McGuire, B. A. |
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| Rok vydání: | 2022 |
| Předmět: | |
| Druh dokumentu: | Working Paper |
| DOI: | 10.1029/2022GL101055 |
| Popis: | The presence of phosphine (PH$_3$) in the atmosphere of Venus was reported by Greaves et al. (2021a), based on observations of the J=1-0 transition at 267 GHz using ground-based, millimeter-wave spectroscopy. This unexpected discovery presents a challenge for our understanding of Venus's atmosphere, and has led to a reappraisal of the possible sources and sinks of atmospheric phosphorous-bearing gases. Here we present results from a search for PH$_3$ on Venus using the GREAT instrument aboard the SOFIA aircraft, over three flights conducted in November 2021. Multiple PH$_3$ transitions were targeted at frequencies centered on 533 GHz and 1067 GHz, but no evidence for atmospheric PH$_3$ was detected. Through radiative transfer modeling, we derived a disk-averaged upper limit on the PH$_3$ abundance of 0.8 ppb in the altitude range 75-110 km, which is more stringent than previous ground-based studies. Comment: Accepted for publication in Geophysical Research Letters |
| Databáze: | arXiv |
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