NASA Logo

NTRS

NTRS - NASA Technical Reports Server

Collections About News Help Login
Back to Results
Radiative transfer in planetary atmospheresRheoretical techniques and observations at millimeter wavelengths are combined to study the atmosphere of planets and comets, planetary and satellite regoliths, and planetary rings. Analysis of the very high quality data on the 18 cm OH line observed in recent comets continued. The high spectral resolution and high signal-to-noise make these lines ideal for study of the kinematics in cometary comae. A model of the collisional quenching of the inversion of the lambda doublet responsible for the OH radio emission has been developed by P. Schloerb. For conditions appropriate to Halley's Comet, collisional quenching should lead radio observers to systematically underestimate the OH parent production rate by a factor of approximately 3 relative to its actual value, which is very consistent with differences observed between radio and ultraviolet-derived production rates. Modeling is likewise continuing for the profiles observed in the lowest rotational transition of HCN in Comet Halley in order to better estimate the excitation and hence the abundance of HCN, as well as the kinematics of parent molecules in the coma. A collaborative program to combine data from the 14 m antenna with interferometric data abtained at the Hat Creek Radio Observatory is allowing aperture synthesis mapping of Venus in the CO J=1-0 line.
Document ID
19890007285
Acquisition Source
Legacy CDMS
Document Type
Other
Authors
Irvine, William M. (Massachusetts Univ. Amherst, MA, United States)
Date Acquired
September 5, 2013
Publication Date
August 1, 1988
Publication Information
Publication: NASA, Washington, Reports of Planetary Astronomy,
Subject Category
Lunar And Planetary Exploration
Accession Number
89N16656
Distribution Limits
Public
Copyright
Work of the US Gov. Public Use Permitted.

Related Records

There are no records associated with this record.
No Preview Available