Sulfur monoxide dimer chemistry as a possible source of polysulfur in the upper atmosphere of Venus
Date
2021-01-08
Authors
Pinto, Joseph P.
Li, Jiazheng
Mills, Franklin
Marcq, Emmanuel
Evdokimova, Daria
Belyaev, Denis
Yung, Yuk L.
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Nature Publishing Group UK
Abstract
The abundance of SO dimers (SO)2 in the upper atmosphere of Venus and their implications
for the enigmatic ultraviolet absorption has been investigated in several studies over the past
few years. However, the photochemistry of sulfur species in the upper atmosphere of Venus
is still not well understood and the identity of the missing ultraviolet absorber(s) remains
unknown. Here we update an existing photochemical model of Venus’ upper atmosphere by
including the photochemistry of SO dimers. Although the spectral absorption profile of SO
dimers fits the unknown absorber, their abundance is found to be too low for them to
contribute significantly to the absorption. It is more likely that their photolysis and/or
reaction products could contribute more substantively. Reactions of SO dimers are found to
be important sources of S2O, and possibly higher order SnO species and polysulfur, Sn. All of
these species absorb in the critical ultraviolet region and are expected to be found in both the
aerosol and gas phase. indicating that in-situ high resolution aerosol mass spectrometry
might be a useful technique for identifying the ultraviolet absorber on Venus
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Nature Communications
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Journal article
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Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License
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