A tenuous, collisional atmosphere on Callisto

A simulation tool which utilizes parallel processing is developed to describe molecular kinetics in 2D, single- and multi-component atmospheres on Callisto. This expands on our previous study on the role of collisions in 1D atmospheres on Callisto composed of radiolytic products (Carberry Mogan et al., 2020) by implementing a temperature gradient from noon to midnight across Callisto's surface and introducing sublimated water vapor. We compare single-species, ballistic and collisional O-2, H-2 and H2O atmospheres, as well as an O-2+H2O atmosphere to 3-species atmospheres which contain H-2 in varying amounts. Because the H2O vapor pressure is extremely sensitive to the surface temperatures, the density drops several orders of magnitude with increasing distance from the subsolar point, and the flow transitions from collisional to ballistic accordingly. In an O-2+H2O atmosphere the local temperatures are determined by H2O near the subsolar point and transition with increasing distance from the subsolar point to being determined by O-2. When radiolytically produced H-2 is not negligible in O-2+H2O+H-2 atmospheres, this much lighter molecule, with a scale height roughly an order of magnitude larger than that for the heavier species, can cool the local temperatures via collisions. In addition, if the H-2 component is dense enough, particles originating on the day-side and precipitating into the night-side atmosphere deposit energy via collisions, which in turn heats the local atmosphere relative to the surface temperature. Moreover, the difference between H-2 atmospheric escape rates in single-species and multi-species atmospheres is small: the H-2 only has to diffuse through a few hundred km of the heavier gases before it is the lone species in the atmosphere out to the Hill sphere. Finally, we discuss the potential implications of this study on the presence of H-2 in Callisto's atmosphere and how the simulated densities correlate with expected detection thresholds at flyby altitudes of the proposed JUpiter ICy moons Explorer (JUICE) spacecraft.

Automated summary

A simulation tool using parallel processing was developed to study molecular kinetics in 2D atmospheres on Callisto, showing that the presence of H-2 molecules can cool local temperatures through collisions and that the difference in H-2 atmospheric escape rates between single-species and multi-species atmospheres is small.