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Register a new userThe Effect of Adsorbed Liquid and Material Density on Saltation Threshold: Insight from Laboratory and Wind Tunnel Experiments
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Saltation threshold, the minimum wind speed for sediment transport, is a fundamental parameter in aeolian processes. The presence of liquid, such as water on Earth or methane on Titan, may affect the threshold values to a great extent. Sediment density is also crucial for determining threshold values. Here we provide quantitative data on density and water content of common wind tunnel materials that have been used to study conditions on Earth, Titan, Mars, and Venus. The measured density values for low density materials are higher compared to literature values, whereas for the high density materials, there is no such discrepancy. We also find that low density materials have much higher water content and longer atmospheric equilibration timescales compared to high density sediments. In the Titan Wind Tunnel, we performed threshold experiments with the standard walnut shells (125-150 mu m, 7.2% water by mass) and dried walnut shells (1.7% water by mass). The threshold results for the two scenarios are almost the same, which indicates that humidity had a negligible effect on threshold for walnut shells in this experimental regime. When the water content is lower than 11.0%, the interparticle forces are dominated by adsorption forces, whereas at higher values the interparticle forces are dominated by much larger capillary forces. For materials with low equilibrium water content, like quartz sand, capillary forces dominate. When the interparticle forces are dominated by adsorption forces, the threshold does not increase with increasing relative humidity (RH). Only when the interparticle forces are dominated by capillary forces does the threshold start to increase with increasing RH/water content. Since tholins have a low methane content (0.3% at saturation, Curtis et al., 2008), we believe tholins would behave similarly to quartz sand when subjected to methane moisture. [abridged abstract]
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Very little experimental work has been done to explore the properties of photochemical hazes formed in atmospheres with very different compositions or temperatures than that of the outer solar system or of early Earth. With extrasolar planet discoveries now numbering thousands, this untapped phase space merits exploration. This study presents measured chemical properties of haze particles produced in laboratory analogues of exoplanet atmospheres. We used very high resolution mass spectrometry to measure the chemical components of solid particles produced in atmospheric chamber experiments. Many complex molecular species with general chemical formulas C$_w$H$_x$N$_y$O$_z$ were detected. We detect molecular formulas of prebiotic interest in the data, including those for the monosaccharide glyceraldehyde, a variety of amino acids and nucleotide bases, and several sugar derivatives. Additionally, the experimental exoplanetary haze analogues exhibit diverse solubility characteristics, which provide insight into the possibility of further chemical or physical alteration of photochemical hazes in super-Earth and mini-Neptune atmospheres. These exoplanet analogue particles can help us better understand chemical atmospheric processes and suggest a possible source of in situ atmospheric prebiotic chemistry on distant worlds.
Wind-driven sand transport generates atmospheric dust, forms dunes, and sculpts landscapes. However, it remains unclear how the sand flux scales with wind speed, largely because models do not agree on how particle speed changes with wind shear velocity. Here, we present comprehensive measurements from three new field sites and three published studies, showing that characteristic saltation layer heights, and thus particle speeds, remain approximately constant with shear velocity. This result implies a linear dependence of saltation flux on wind shear stress, which contrasts with the nonlinear 3/2 scaling used in most aeolian process predictions. We confirm the linear flux law with direct measurements of the stress-flux relationship occurring at each site. Models for dust generation, dune migration, and other processes driven by wind-blown sand on Earth, Mars, and several other planetary surfaces should be modified to account for linear stress-flux scaling.
The LIGO-Virgo collaboration detection of the binary neutron-star merger event, GW170817, has expanded efforts to understand the Equation of State (EoS) of nuclear matter. These measurements provide new constraints on the overall pressure, but do not elucidate its origins, by not distinguishing the contribution to the pressure from symmetry energy which governs much of the internal structure of a neutron star. By combining the neutron star EoS extracted from the GW170817 event and the EoS of symmetric matter from nucleus-nucleus collision experiments, we extract the symmetry pressure, which is the difference in pressure between neutron and nuclear matter over the density region from 1.2$rho_{0}$ to $4.5rho_{0}$. While the uncertainties in the symmetry pressure are large, they can be reduced with new experimental and astrophysical results.
Observations of strong flux of low-energy neutrons were made by $^{3}mathrm{He}$ counters during thunderstorms [Gurevich et al (Phys. Rev. Lett. 108, 125001, 2012)]. How the unprecedented enhancements were produced remains elusive. To better elucidate the mechanism, a simulation study of surrounding material impacts on measurement by $^{3}mathrm{He}$ counters was performed with GEANT4. It was found that unlike previously thought, a $^3mathrm{He}$ counter had a small sensitivity to high-energy gamma rays because of inelastic interaction with its cathode-tube materials (Al or stainless steel). A $^{3}mathrm{He}$ counter with the intrinsic small sensitivity, if surrounded by thick materials, would largely detect thunderstorm-related gamma rays rather than those neutrons produced via photonuclear reaction in the atmosphere. On the other hand, the counter, if surrounded by thin materials and located away from a gamma-ray source, would observe neutron signals with little gamma-ray contamination. Compared with the Gurevich measurement, the present work allows us to deduce that the enhancements are attributable to gamma rays, if their observatory was very close to or inside a gamma-ray emitting region in thunderclouds.
The InSight mission has operated on the surface of Mars for nearly two Earth years, returning detections of the first Marsquakes. The lander also deployed a meteorological instrument package and cameras to monitor local surface activity. These instruments have detected boundary layer phenomena, including small-scale vortices. These vortices register as short-lived, negative pressure excursions and closely resemble those that could generate dust devils. Although our analysis shows InSight encountered more than 900 vortices and collected more than 1000 images of the martian surface, no active dust devils were imaged. In spite of the lack of dust devil detections, we can leverage the vortex detections and InSights daily wind speed measurements to learn about the boundary layer processes that create dust devils. We discuss our analysis of InSights meteorological data to assess the statistics of vortex and dust devil activity. We also infer encounter distances for the vortices and, therefrom, the maximum vortex wind speeds. Surveying the available imagery, we place upper limits on what fraction of vortices carry dust (i.e., how many are bonafide dust devils) and estimate threshold wind speeds for dust lifting. Comparing our results to detections of dust devil tracks seen in space-based observations of the InSight landing site, we can also infer thresholds and frequency of track formation by vortices. Comparing vortex encounters and parameters with advective wind speeds, we find evidence that high wind speeds at InSight may have suppressed the formation of dust devils, explaining the lack of imaged dust devils.
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