Related papers: Atmospheric Electricity at the Ice Giants
Lightning is common throughout the Solar System, and charging of particles occurs in all atmospheres due to ionization from galactic cosmic rays. Here, some electrical processes relevant to the atmosphere of Venus are outlined and discussed…
The Ice Giants represent a unique and relatively poorly characterized class of planets that have been largely unexplored since the brief Voyager 2 flyby in the late 1980's. Uranus is particularly enigmatic, due to its extreme axial tilt,…
Ground-based near-IR observations have revealed that Uranus anomalously hot upper atmosphere, detected by Voyager 2, has been steadily cooling. The observed $H_3^+$ and $H_2$ emission-line spectra probe Uranus' ionosphere and thermosphere,…
Atmospheric circulation patterns derived from multi-spectral remote sensing can serve as a guide for choosing a suitable entry site for a future in situ probe mission. Since the Voyager-2 flybys in the 1980s, three decades of observations…
In this paper, we propose observational methods for detecting lightning in protoplanetary disks. We do so by calculating the critical electric field strength in the lightning matrix gas (LMG), the parts of the disk where the electric field…
Extrasolar planets appear in a chemical diversity unseen in our own solar system. Despite their atmospheres being cold, continuous and transient plasma processes do affect these atmosphere where clouds form with great efficiency. Clouds can…
Long-term measurements (1972-2015) of the reflectivity of Uranus at 472 and 551 nm display variability that is incompletely explained by seasonal effects. Spectral analysis shows this non-seasonal variability tracks the 11-year solar cycle.…
Models for the source and propagation of cosmic rays are stressed by observations of cosmic rays with energies $E>10^{20}$ eV. A key discriminant between different models may be complementary observations of neutrinos with energies…
Lightning induced radio emission has been observed on Solar system planets. There have been many attempts to observe exoplanets in the radio wavelength, however, no unequivocal detection has been reported. Lecavelier des Etangs et al.…
While lightning activity in Venus is still controversial, its existence in Jupiter and Saturn was first detected by the Voyager missions and later on confirmed by Cassini and New Horizons optical recordings in the case of Jupiter, and…
Future remote sensing of exoplanets will be enhanced by a thorough investigation of our solar system Ice Giants (Neptune-size planets). What can the configuration of the magnetic field tell us (remotely) about the interior, and what…
The ice giant planets Uranus and Neptune are assumed to contain large amounts of planetary ices such as water, methane, and ammonia. The properties of mixtures of such ices at the extreme pressures and temperatures of planetary interiors…
Signs of lightning on Venus have long been sought, including by space missions and ground-based telescopes searching for optical flashes, plasma waves, or radio signatures. These efforts have yielded conflicting findings regarding the…
I discuss the feasibility of a conceptual space-based neutrino detector that utilizes the Ice Giants as Targets for Galactic Neutrinos. The purpose of this research stems from the concept of wanting to find a new method of observing the…
Trans-ionospheric pulse pairs are the most powerful natural radio signals on the Earth and associated with lightning. They have been discovered for two decades by satellites, but their origin still remains elusive. Here we attribute these…
UV auroral emissions from giant planets are produced by extra-atmospheric energetic particles interacting with an atmosphere. They have been observed on Jupiter, Saturn and Uranus and should be present on Neptune. Even if the mechanisms are…
Recent Juno observations have greatly extended the temporal and spatial coverage of lightning detection on Jupiter. We use these data to constrain a model of moist convection and lightning generation in Jupiter's atmosphere, and derive a…
We designed, developed, and deployed a distributed sensor network aiming at observing high-energy ionizing radiation, primarily gamma rays, from winter thunderclouds and lightning in coastal areas of Japan. Starting in 2015, we have…
The Pierre Auger Observatory has published properties of the 100 highest-energy cosmic ray events (to energies above 100 EeV) which it recorded over a 17 year period. We have examined the directional properties of these events and have…
The magnetic fields of the Ice Giant Planets Uranus and Neptune (U/N) are unique in the solar system. Based on a substantial database measured on Earth for representative planetary fluids at representative dynamic pressures up to 200 GPa (2…