The solar radio flux at 10.7 cm has been used in upper atmosphere density modelling because of its correlation with EUV radiation and its long and complete observational record. A proxy, the Mg II index, for the solar chromospheric activity has been derived by Heath and Schlesinger (1986) from Nimbus-7 data. This index allows one to describe the changes occurring in solar-activity in the UV Sun...

Temperature variations of Titan’s upper atmosphere due to the plasma interaction of the satellite with Saturn’s magnetosphere and Titan’s high altitude monomer haze particles can imply an offset of up to ±30 K from currently estimated model profiles. We incorporated these temperature uncertainties as an offset into the recently published Vervack et al. (2004) (Icarus, Vol. 170, 91–112) engineer...

The specification of the upper atmosphere strongly relies on solar proxies that can properly reproduce the solar energetic input in the UV. Whilst the microwave flux at 10.7 cm (also called F10.7 index) has been routinely used as a solar proxy, we show that the radio flux at other wavelengths provides valuable complementary information that enhances their value for upper atmospheric modelling. ...

Recent studies have examined tropical upper tropospheric warming by comparing coupled atmosphere–ocean global circulation model (GCM) simulations from Phase 3 of the Coupled Model Intercomparison Project (CMIP3) with satellite and radiosonde observations of warming in the tropical upper troposphere relative to the lower-middle troposphere. These studies showed that models tended to overestimate...

2 Abstract. We present the rst results of an ongoing eeort to search for new species in the lunar atmosphere. We discuss our observations in terms of the degree to which atomic metal abundances in the lunar atmosphere are stoichiometric, that is, proportional to surface abundances (as the Na:K ratio is). Na and K are the only atmospheric constituents to have been observed from Earth, but Apollo...

[1] Saturn’s magnetospheric structure and the intensity of radio frequency emissions from its immediate surroundings are modulated at close to the planet’s rotation period. Analogous rotation-modulated variations at Jupiter are readily interpreted as effects of the non-axisymmetric intrinsic magnetic field. At Saturn, to the contrary, the high level of axial symmetry in the intrinsic field sugg...

If the upper atmosphere and ionosphere of Triton are controlled by precipitation of electrons from Neptune's magnetosphere as previously proposed, Triton could have the only ionosphere in the solar system not controlled by solar radiation. However, a new model of Triton's atmosphere, in which only solar radiation is present, predicts a large column of carbon atoms. With an assumed, but reason...

High-energy photons, electrons, and ions initiate ion–neutral chemistry in Titan’s upper atmosphere by ionizing the major neutral species (nitrogen and methane). The Ion and Neutral Mass Spectrometer (INMS) onboard the Cassini spacecraft performed the first composition measurements of Titan’s ionosphere. INMS revealed that Titan has the most compositionally complex ionosphere in the Solar Syste...

The Voyager mission to the outer solar system discovered that the thermospheres of all the giant planets are remarkably hot. To date, no convincing explanation for this phenomenon has been offered; however, there are a number of recent observational results which provide new information on the thermal structure of Jupiter's upper atmosphere that bear on this outstanding problem. We present an a...