Welcome to the new version of CaltechAUTHORS. Login is currently restricted to library staff. If you notice any issues, please email coda@library.caltech.edu
Published June 28, 2017 | Published + Supplemental Material
Journal Article Open

The influence of meridional ice transport on Europa's ocean stratification and heat content

Abstract

Jupiter's moon Europa likely hosts a saltwater ocean beneath its icy surface. Geothermal heating and rotating convection in the ocean may drive a global overturning circulation that redistributes heat vertically and meridionally, preferentially warming the ice shell at the equator. Here we assess the previously unconstrained influence of ocean-ice coupling on Europa's ocean stratification and heat transport. We demonstrate that a relatively fresh layer can form at the ice-ocean interface due to a meridional ice transport forced by the differential ice shell heating between the equator and the poles. We provide analytical and numerical solutions for the layer's characteristics, highlighting their sensitivity to critical ocean parameters. For a weakly turbulent and highly saline ocean, a strong buoyancy gradient at the base of the freshwater layer can suppress vertical tracer exchange with the deeper ocean. As a result, the freshwater layer permits relatively warm deep ocean temperatures.

Additional Information

© 2017 American Geophysical Union. Received 8 FEB 2017; Accepted 5 JUN 2017; Accepted article online 12 JUN 2017; Published online 22 JUN 2017. P.Z. completed this work through Caltech's Summer Undergraduate Research Fellowship (SURF) program; we thank the organizers for their support. G.E.M. was supported by the Stanback Postdoctoral Fellowship Fund at Caltech. This work was partially supported by Strategic Research and Technology funds from the Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Caltech, and by the Icy Worlds node of NASA's Astrobiology Institute (13-13NAI7_2-0024). The research was carried out at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory, California Institute of Technology, under a contract with the National Aeronautics and Space Administration. The numerical model based on equations described in this paper produced figures that include all of the numerical information, so there are no data-sharing issues.

Attached Files

Published - Zhu_et_al-2017-Geophysical_Research_Letters.pdf

Supplemental Material - grl56051-sup-0001-TextS1.pdf

Files

grl56051-sup-0001-TextS1.pdf
Files (962.1 kB)
Name Size Download all
md5:96d3a90ad5d3d57a740102843b35be7a
358.0 kB Preview Download
md5:10e835babb4f288b2a30b0ada3eba93c
604.2 kB Preview Download

Additional details

Created:
August 22, 2023
Modified:
October 17, 2023