{"id":2,"date":"2021-11-29T13:47:57","date_gmt":"2021-11-29T13:47:57","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/teams.issibern.ch\/icerichareas\/?page_id=2"},"modified":"2022-03-29T11:41:11","modified_gmt":"2022-03-29T11:41:11","slug":"home","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/teams.issibern.ch\/icerichareas\/","title":{"rendered":"Abstract"},"content":{"rendered":"

The<\/span> presence<\/span> of<\/span> water<\/span> ice<\/span> both<\/span> on<\/span> the<\/span> surface<\/span> and<\/span> in<\/span> the<\/span> subsurface<\/span> of<\/span> planetary<\/span> bodies,<\/span> like<\/span> Ceres, <\/span>Moon and Mercury has been demonstrated in recent studies.<\/span> In particular, <\/span>water ice is present in some permanent or semi-permanent shadowed areas, for example on the rims of <\/span>craters, where the local topography and illumination conditions favour the presence of perennial water<\/span> ice.<\/span> The presence of water ice not only has great significance from an astrobiological point of view, but <\/span>it also provides important information about a body\u2019s internal evolution.<\/span> For these reasons, it is critical<\/span> to<\/span> evaluate<\/span> the<\/span> stability<\/span> of<\/span> water<\/span> ice<\/span> on<\/span> the<\/span> surface<\/span> or<\/span> in<\/span> the<\/span> shallow<\/span> subsurface<\/span> of<\/span> planetary<\/span> bodies. <\/span>Wherever<\/span> ice<\/span> is<\/span> unstable,<\/span> for<\/span> example<\/span> due<\/span> to<\/span> the<\/span> local<\/span> illumination<\/span> conditions<\/span> or<\/span> to<\/span> impact<\/span> events,<\/span> it <\/span>can lead to the formation of a transient exosphere.<\/span>
The<\/span> scientific<\/span> literature<\/span> offers<\/span> a<\/span> wide<\/span> range<\/span> of<\/span> one<\/span> dimensional<\/span> thermophysical<\/span> models<\/span>.<\/span> However, no complex numerical modeling has integrated an Eulerian approach, which <\/span>provides a complete thermophysical representation of the simulated sites, with a Lagrangian approach, <\/span>which simulates the likely water vapour emission, as well as the interaction of volatiles with the regolith<\/span> (dust).<\/span> A rigorous study of the evolution of a mixture of vapour-ice particles emitted by the surface is <\/span>motivated by two aspects:<\/span> I) water emissions can be observed as transient phenomena; II) the pressure<\/span> and<\/span> temperature<\/span> conditions<\/span> present<\/span> allow<\/span> for<\/span> processes<\/span> of<\/span> both<\/span> sublimation<\/span> and<\/span> recombination.<\/span><\/p>\n

This<\/span> research project aims to bridge this gap with the following three-pronged approach:<\/span><\/p>\n

    \n
  1. Application<\/span> to<\/span> representative<\/span> ice-rich<\/span> sites<\/span> on<\/span> Moon,<\/span> Ceres<\/span> and<\/span> Mercury<\/span> by<\/span> (a)<\/span> preparing<\/span> the <\/span>digital terrain model (DTM) in a specific format compatible with the above numerical modeling, <\/span>and<\/span> (b)<\/span> calculating<\/span> the<\/span> corresponding<\/span> illumination<\/span> conditions.<\/span> Temperature<\/span> maps<\/span> of<\/span> the<\/span> sur<\/span>face\/subsurface<\/span> as<\/span> a<\/span> function<\/span> of<\/span> thermal<\/span> inertia<\/span> will<\/span> be<\/span> used<\/span> to<\/span> evaluate<\/span> the<\/span> lifetime<\/span> of<\/span> surface <\/span>ices.<\/span><\/li>\n
  2. Application of a 3-D finite element method (FEM) thermophysical model, based on digital terrain <\/span>models (DTM) and illumination conditions at reference sites.<\/span><\/li>\n
  3. Implementation of a code based on the Smoothed Particle Hydrodynamics (SPH) scheme to study<\/span> the water vapour emission and the volatile-dust interaction, given the temperature maps produced <\/span>by the FEM model.<\/span> Water vapour emission may be triggered both by the local illumination and<\/span> by impact events.<\/span><\/li>\n
  4. This synthetic description of the physical characteristics of ice-rich areas on planetary surfaces will <\/span>provide<\/span> critically-needed<\/span> theoretical<\/span> support<\/span> both<\/span> to<\/span> recent<\/span> and<\/span> current<\/span> space<\/span> missions<\/span> (e.g.<\/span> Dawn, <\/span>Rosetta, BepiColombo, ExoMars) and to future missions.<\/span> Ice-rich areas on the Moon, for example, are<\/span> primary targets for future human exploration.<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ol>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

    The presence of water ice both on the surface and in the subsurface of planetary bodies, like Ceres, Moon and Mercury has been demonstrated in recent studies. In particular, water ice is present in some permanent or semi-permanent shadowed areas, for example on the rims of craters, where the local topography and illumination conditions favour […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":19,"featured_media":0,"parent":0,"menu_order":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"footnotes":""},"class_list":["post-2","page","type-page","status-publish","hentry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/teams.issibern.ch\/icerichareas\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/2","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/teams.issibern.ch\/icerichareas\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/teams.issibern.ch\/icerichareas\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/page"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/teams.issibern.ch\/icerichareas\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/19"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/teams.issibern.ch\/icerichareas\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2"}],"version-history":[{"count":14,"href":"https:\/\/teams.issibern.ch\/icerichareas\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/2\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":47,"href":"https:\/\/teams.issibern.ch\/icerichareas\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/2\/revisions\/47"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/teams.issibern.ch\/icerichareas\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}