next up previous
Next: The Atmosphere Model Up: Analysis Previous: Temperature Inversion

Vertical Structure

Construction of an atmospheric structure profile will be based upon the work of Baines and Hammel (1994) who used observations from 0.6-0.9 taken with the University of Hawaii 2.24 m telescope at Mauna Kea to derive a profile for Neptune. Constants in the model were the tropospheric methane mixing ratio, the hydrogen ortho/para ratio (defined as equilibrium), and the base of the visible atmosphere (higher in Uranus than in Neptune). The phase functions and initial thermal profile were from Voyager observations. For each of three observed bands they computed four parameters, the opacity and hazetop pressure of the haze layer, the stratospheric mixing ratio, and the stratospheric mean radius. These along with the center-of-disk intensity are used to compute the stratospheric aerosol column abundance. The center-to-limb behavior serves as a check. Additional constraints are that opacities cannot be negative, single-scattering albedos must be between 0 and 1, and that haze opacities increase towards the blue.



Charles Walter
Thu May 18 17:57:23 MDT 1995