The presence of phosphine (PH3) in the atmosphere of Venus was reported by Greaves et al. (2021a), based on observations of the J=1-0 transition at 267 GHz using ground-based, millimeter-wave spectroscopy. This unexpected discovery presents a challenge for our understanding of Venus's atmosphere, and has led to a reappraisal of the possible sources and sinks of atmospheric phosphorous-bearing gases. Here we present results from a search for PH3 on Venus using the GREAT instrument aboard the SOFIA aircraft, over three flights conducted in November 2021. Multiple PH3 transitions were targeted at frequencies centered on 533 GHz and 1067 GHz, but no evidence for atmospheric PH3 was detected. Through radiative transfer modeling, we derived a disk-averaged upper limit on the PH3 abundance of 0.8 ppb in the altitude range 75-110 km, which is more stringent than previous ground-based studies.
@article{arxiv.2210.13519,
title = {Phosphine in the Venusian Atmosphere: A Strict Upper Limit from SOFIA GREAT Observations},
author = {M. A. Cordiner and G. L. Villanueva and H. Wiesemeyer and S. N. Milam and I. de Pater and A. Moullet and R. Aladro and C. A. Nixon and A. E. Thelen and S. B. Charnley and J. Stutzki and V. Kofman and S. Faggi and G. Liuzzi and R. Cosentino and B. A. McGuire},
journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:2210.13519},
year = {2022}
}
Comments
Accepted for publication in Geophysical Research Letters