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Geophysical measurements can reveal the structure of icy ocean worlds and cycling of volatiles. The associated density, temperature, sound speed, and electrical conductivity of such worlds thus characterizes their habitability. To explore…
Recent planetary data and geophysical modelling suggest that hydrothermal activity is ongoing under the ice crust of Enceladus, one of Saturn's moons. According to these models, hydrothermal flow in the porous, rocky core of the satellite…
The detection of outgassing water vapor from Enceladus is one of the great breakthroughs of the Cassini mission. The fate of this water once ionized has been widely studied; here we investigate the effects of purely neutral-neutral…
Jupiter's icy moons are believed to host subsurface liquid oceans, and among them, Europa stands out as one of the most promising candidates for extraterrestrial life. Yet, the processes driving oceanic flows beneath its ice shell, as well…
Storms operated by moist convection and the condensation of $\rm CH_{4}$ or $\rm H_{2}S$ have been observed on Uranus and Neptune. However, the mechanism of cloud formation, thermal structure, and mixing efficiency of ice giant weather…
In the Ocean, thermohaline intrusions and interleaving layers occur within the water mass fronts with horizontal temperature and salinity gradients, which provide an important horizontal mixing mechanism. Here we report a new type of…
Enceladus's gravity and shape have been explained in terms of a thick isostatic ice shell floating on a global ocean, in contradiction of the thin shell implied by librations. Here we propose a new isostatic model minimizing crustal…
The mechanism that causes an interdecadal oscillation in a coarse resolution sector ocean model forced by mixed boundary conditions is studied. The oscillation is characterized by large fluctuations in convective activity and air/sea heat…
The deep (~100 km) ocean of Europa, Jupiter's moon, covered by a thick icy shell, is one of the most probable places in the solar system to find extraterrestrial life. Yet, its ocean dynamics and its interaction with the ice cover have…
The tropical overturning circulation is examined in a moist aquaplanet general circulation model forced using a non-interactive sea surface temperature (SST) distribution that varies between a present-day Earth-like profile and one that is…
Enceladus exhibits some remarkable phenomena, including water geysers spraying through surface cracks, a global ice shell that is librating atop an ocean, a large luminosity, and rapid outward orbital migration. Here we model the coupled…
Turbulence in the upper ocean in the submesoscale range (scales smaller than the deformation radius) plays an important role for the heat exchange with the atmosphere and for oceanic biogeochemistry. Its dynamics should strongly depend on…
Enceladus offers our best opportunity for exploring the chemistry of an ocean on another world. Here, we perform geochemical modeling to show how the distribution of phosphate species found in ice grains from Enceladus's plume provides a…
Habitability of exoplanet's deepest oceans could be limited by the presence of high-pressure ices at their base. New work demonstrates that efficient chemical transport within deep planetary ice mantles is possible through significant salt…
We have developed a homogeneous model of physical chemistry to investigate the neutral-dominated, water-based Enceladus torus. Electrons are treated as the summation of two isotropic Maxwellian distributions$-$a thermal component and a hot…
Turbulent water motions are important for the exchange of momentum, heat, nutrients, and suspended matter including sediments in the deep-sea that is generally stably stratified in density. To maintain ocean-density stratification, an…
Liquid-water oceans likely underlie the ice shells of Europa and Enceladus, but ocean properties are challenging to measure due to the overlying ice. Here, we consider gravity-driven flow of the ice shells of icy satellites and relate this…
Turbulence is indispensable to redistribute nutrients for all life forms larger than microbial, on land and in the ocean. Yet, the development of deep-sea turbulence was not studied in three dimensions to date. As a disproportionate…
Knowledge about deep-ocean turbulent mixing and flow circulation above abyssal hilly plains is important to quantify processes for the modelling of resuspension and dispersal of sediments in areas where turbulence sources are expected to be…
Atmospheric collapse is likely to be of fundamental importance to tidally locked rocky exoplanets but remains understudied. Here, general results on the heat transport and stability of tidally locked terrestrial-type atmospheres are…