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Combining stellar occultation observations probing Plutos atmosphere from 1988 to 2013 and models of energy balance between Plutos surface and atmosphere, we conclude that Plutos atmosphere does not collapse at any point in its 248-year orbit. The occultation results show an increasing atmospheric pressure with time in the current epoch, a trend present only in models with a high thermal inertia and a permanent N2 ice cap at Plutos north rotational pole.
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Haze in Plutos atmosphere was detected in images by both the Long Range Reconnaissance Imager (LORRI) and the Multispectral Visible Imaging Camera (MVIC) on New Horizons. LORRI observed haze up to altitudes of at least 200 km above Plutos surface at solar phase angles from ~20{deg} to ~169{deg}. The haze is structured with about ~20 layers, and the extinction due to haze is greater in the northern hemisphere than at equatorial or southern latitudes. However, more haze layers are discerned at equatorial latitudes. A search for temporal variations found no evidence for motions of haze layers (temporal changes in layer altitudes) on time scales of 2 to 5 hours, but did find evidence of changes in haze scale height above 100 km altitude. An ultraviolet extinction attributable to the atmospheric haze was also detected by the ALICE ultraviolet spectrograph on New Horizons. The haze particles are strongly forward-scattering in the visible, and a microphysical model of haze is presented which reproduces the visible phase function just above the surface with 0.5 {mu}m spherical particles, but also invokes fractal aggregate particles to fit the visible phase function at 45 km altitude and account for UV extinction. A model of haze layer generation by orographic excitation of gravity waves is presented. This model accounts for the observed layer thickness and distribution with altitude. Haze particles settle out of the atmosphere and onto Plutos surface, at a rate sufficient to alter surface optical properties on seasonal time scales. Plutos regional scale albedo contrasts may be preserved in the face of the haze deposition by atmospheric collapse.
We analyze two multi-chord stellar occultations by Pluto observed on July 18th, 2012 and May 4th, 2013, and monitored respectively from five and six sites. They provide a total of fifteen light-curves, twelve of them being used for a simultaneous fit that uses a unique temperature profile, assuming a clear (no-haze) and pure N_2 atmosphere, but allowing for a possible pressure variation between the two dates. We find a solution that fits satisfactorily (i.e. within the noise level) all the twelve light-curves, providing atmospheric constraints between ~1,190 km (pressure ~ 11 mubar) and ~ 1,450 km (pressure ~0.1 mubar) from Plutos center. Our main results are: (1) the best-fitting temperature profile shows a stratosphere with strong positive gradient between 1,190 km (at 36 K, 11 mubar) and r = 1,215 km (6.0 mubar), where a temperature maximum of 110 K is reached; above it is a mesosphere with negative thermal gradient of -0.2 K/km up to ~ 1,390 km (0.25 mubar), where, the mesosphere connects itself to a more isothermal upper branch around 81 K; (2) the pressure shows a small (6 %) but significant increase (6-sigma level) between the two dates; (3) without troposphere, Plutos radius is found to be R_P = 1,190 +/- 5km. Allowing for a troposphere, R_P is constrained to lie between 1,168 and 1,195 km; (4) the currently measured CO abundance is too small to explain the mesospheric negative thermal gradient. Cooling by HCN is possible, but only if this species is largely saturated; Alternative explanations like zonal winds or vertical compositional variations of the atmosphere are unable to explain the observed mesospheric trend.
Observations of the Pluto-Charon system, acquired with the ALMA interferometer on June 12-13, 2015, have yielded a detection of the CO(3-2) and HCN(4-3) rotational transitions from Pluto, providing a strong confirmation of the presence of CO, and the first observation of HCN, in Plutos atmosphere. The CO and HCN lines probe Plutos atmosphere up to ~450 km and ~900 km altitude, respectively. The CO detection yields (i) a much improved determination of the CO mole fraction, as 515+/-40 ppm for a 12 ubar surface pressure (ii) clear evidence for a well-marked temperature decrease (i.e., mesosphere) above the 30-50 km stratopause and a best-determined temperature of 70+/-2 K at 300 km, in agreement with recent inferences from New Horizons / Alice solar occultation data. The HCN line shape implies a high abundance of this species in the upper atmosphere, with a mole fraction >1.5x10-5 above 450 km and a value of 4x10-5 near 800 km. The large HCN abundance and the cold upper atmosphere imply supersaturation of HCN to a degree (7-8 orders of magnitude) hitherto unseen in planetary atmospheres, probably due to the slow kinetics of condensation at the low pressure and temperature conditions of Plutos upper atmosphere. HCN is also present in the bottom ~100 km of the atmosphere, with a 10-8 - 10-7 mole fraction; this implies either HCN saturation or undersaturation there, depending on the precise stratopause temperature. The HCN column is (1.6+/-0.4)x10^14 cm-2, suggesting a surface-referred net production rate of ~2x10^7 cm-2s-1. Although HCN rotational line cooling affects Plutos atmosphere heat budget, the amounts determined in this study are insufficient to explain the well-marked mesosphere and upper atmospheres ~70 K temperature. We finally report an upper limit on the HC3N column density (< 2x10^13 cm-2) and on the HC15N / HC14N ratio (< 1/125).
Context. Plutos tenuous nitrogen (N2) atmosphere undergoes strong seasonal effects due to high obliquity and orbital eccentricity, and has been recently (July 2015) observed by the New Horizons spacecraft. Goals are (i) construct a well calibrated record of the seasonal evolution of surface pressure on Pluto and (ii) constrain the structure of the lower atmosphere using a central flash observed in 2015. Method: eleven stellar occultations by Pluto observed between 2002 and 2016 are used to retrieve atmospheric profiles (density, pressure, temperature) between $sim$5 km and $sim$380 km altitude levels (i.e. pressures from about 10 microbar to 10 nanobar). Results: (i) Pressure has suffered a monotonic increase from 1988 to 2016, that is compared to a seasonal volatile transport model, from which tight constraints on a combination of albedo and emissivity of N2 ice are derived; (ii) A central flash observed on 2015 June 29 is consistent with New Horizons REX profiles, provided that (a) large diurnal temperature variations (not expected by current models) occur over Sputnik Planitia and/or (b) hazes with tangential optical depth of about 0.3 are present at 4-7 km altitude levels and/or (c) the nominal REX density values are overestimated by an implausibly large factor of about 20% and/or (d) higher terrains block part of the flash in the Charon facing hemisphere.
Context: Pluto possesses a thin atmosphere, primarily composed of nitrogen, in which the detection of methane has been reported. Aims: The goal is to constrain essential but so far unknown parameters of Plutos atmosphere such as the surface pressure, lower atmosphere thermal stucture, and methane mixing ratio. Methods: We use high-resolution spectroscopic observations of gaseous methane, and a novel analysis of occultation light-curves. Results: We show that (i) Plutos surface pressure is currently in the 6.5-24 microbar range (ii) the methane mixing ratio is 0.5+/-0.1 %, adequate to explain Plutos inverted thermal structure and ~100 K upper atmosphere temperature (iii) a troposphere is not required by our data, but if present, it has a depth of at most 17 km, i.e. less than one pressure scale height; in this case methane is supersaturated in most of it. The atmospheric and bulk surface abundance of methane are strikingly similar, a possible consequence of the presence of a CH4-rich top surface layer.
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