TY - JOUR
T1 - CO2 amount on Venus constrained by a criterion of topographic-greenhouse instability
AU - Hashimoto, George L.
AU - Abe, Yutaka
AU - Sasaki, Sho
N1 - Copyright:
Copyright 2017 Elsevier B.V., All rights reserved.
PY - 1997
Y1 - 1997
N2 - Which mechanism determines the planetary atmospheric inventories of various gases is an important problem. It has been suggested that Venus' atmospheric CO2 abundance is controlled or buffered by carbonation reaction on the surface (carbonate buffer). According to this hypothesis, the formation or decomposition of carbonate stabilizes atmospheric CO2 concentration. However, the amount of carbonate existing on the Venus' surface is not established yet. Using a stability analysis that combines the greenhouse effect, carbonation reaction, and topography, we place an upper limit to carbonate on Venus. This upper limit of carbonate is only about 4 bar of CO2 and is much smaller than the amount of CO2 in the atmosphere. This suggests that the present CO2 concentration in Venus' atmosphere is not controlled by the carbonation reaction but by the total abundance of CO2 in near surface layers.
AB - Which mechanism determines the planetary atmospheric inventories of various gases is an important problem. It has been suggested that Venus' atmospheric CO2 abundance is controlled or buffered by carbonation reaction on the surface (carbonate buffer). According to this hypothesis, the formation or decomposition of carbonate stabilizes atmospheric CO2 concentration. However, the amount of carbonate existing on the Venus' surface is not established yet. Using a stability analysis that combines the greenhouse effect, carbonation reaction, and topography, we place an upper limit to carbonate on Venus. This upper limit of carbonate is only about 4 bar of CO2 and is much smaller than the amount of CO2 in the atmosphere. This suggests that the present CO2 concentration in Venus' atmosphere is not controlled by the carbonation reaction but by the total abundance of CO2 in near surface layers.
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U2 - 10.1029/96GL04006
DO - 10.1029/96GL04006
M3 - Article
AN - SCOPUS:0031076329
VL - 24
SP - 289
EP - 292
JO - Geophysical Research Letters
JF - Geophysical Research Letters
SN - 0094-8276
IS - 3
ER -