Impacts of Cosmic Dust on Planetary Atmospheres and Surfaces

John M. C. Plane (1) , George J. Flynn (2) , Anni Määttänen (3) , John E. Moores (4) , Andrew R. Poppe (5) , Juan Diego Carrillo-Sanchez (1) , Constantino Listowski (3)

1 School of Chemistry [Leeds]
2 SUNY Plattsburgh - State University of New York at Plattsburgh
3 PLANETO - LATMOS
4 ESSE - Department of Earth and Space Science and Engineering [York University - Toronto]
5 SSL - Space Sciences Laboratory [Berkeley]

Recent advances in interplanetary dust modelling provide much improved estimates of the fluxes of cosmic dust particles into planetary (and lunar) atmospheres throughout the solar system. Combining the dust particle size and velocity distributions with new chemical ablation models enables the injection rates of individual elements to be predicted as a function of location and time. This information is essential for understanding a variety of atmospheric impacts, including: the formation of layers of metal atoms and ions; meteoric smoke particles and ice cloud nucleation; perturbations to atmospheric gas-phase chemistry; and the effects of the surface deposition of micrometeorites and cosmic spherules. There is discussion of impacts on all the planets, as well as on Pluto, Triton and Titan.

Keywords: Metallic layers; Meteoric smoke particles; Planetary atmospheres; Meteoric ablation; Cosmic dust flux; Surface deposition; Noctilucent clouds

Domains: Sciences of the Universe [physics]; Ocean, Atmosphere; Physics [physics]; Physics [physics]; Space Physics [physics.space-ph]; Sciences of the Universe [physics]

John M. C. Plane, George J. Flynn, Anni Määttänen, John E. Moores, Andrew R. Poppe, et al.. Impacts of Cosmic Dust on Planetary Atmospheres and Surfaces. Space Science Reviews, 2018, 214 (1), pp.23. ⟨10.1007/s11214-017-0458-1⟩. ⟨insu-01681506⟩