Published December 15, 1999
| Published
Journal Article
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Photo-induced fractionation of water isotopomers in the Martian atmosphere
Abstract
The history and size of the water reservoirs on early Mars can be constrained using isotopic ratios of deuterium to hydrogen. We present new laboratory measurements of the ultraviolet cross-sections of H_2O and its isotopomers, and modeling calculations in support of a photo-induced fractionation effect (PHIFE), that reconciles a discrepancy between past theoretical modeling and recent observations. This supports the hypothesis that Mars had an early warm atmosphere and has lost at least a 50-m global layer of water. Likely applications of PHIFE to other planetary atmospheres are sketched.
Additional Information
© 1999 The American Geophysical Union. Received May 27, 1999; Revised July 20, 1999; Accepted August 6, 1999. Paper number 1999GL008367. The authors thank H. Nair for computing Figure 2, and D. M. Kass, C. M. Miller and B. P. Weiss for valuable comments. This research was supported in part by NASA grant NAG5-4022 and NSF grant AST-9816409 to the California Institute of Technology.Attached Files
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Additional details
- Eprint ID
- 48992
- Resolver ID
- CaltechAUTHORS:20140827-124624938
- NAG5-4022
- NASA
- AST-9816409
- NSF
- Created
-
2014-08-27Created from EPrint's datestamp field
- Updated
-
2021-11-10Created from EPrint's last_modified field
- Caltech groups
- Division of Geological and Planetary Sciences