DOI: 10.1038/s41561-021-00706-3
论文题名: A pole-to-equator ocean overturning circulation on Enceladus
作者: Lobo A.H. ; Thompson A.F. ; Vance S.D. ; Tharimena S.
刊名: Nature Geoscience
ISSN: 17520894
出版年: 2021
卷: 14, 期: 4 起始页码: 185
结束页码: 189
语种: 英语
英文关键词: Enceladus
; floating ice
; global ocean
; ice thickness
; ice-ocean interaction
; Moon
; oceanic circulation
; overturn
; paleosalinity
; polar region
; salinity
英文摘要: Enceladus is believed to have a saltwater global ocean, heated at the ocean–core interface and losing heat to the floating ice shell above. This configuration suggests an important role for vertical convection. The ice shell has dramatic meridional thickness variations that, in steady state, must be sustained by the ocean circulation against processes acting to remove these anomalies. This could be achieved through spatially separated regions of freezing and melting at the ocean–ice interface. Here, we use an idealized, dynamical ocean model forced by an observationally guided density flux at the ocean–ice interface to argue that Enceladus’s interior ocean should support a meridional overturning circulation. This circulation establishes an interior density structure that is more complex than in studies that have focused only on vertical convection, including a shallow freshwater lens in the polar regions. Spatially separated sites of ice formation and melt enable Enceladus to sustain significant vertical and horizontal stratification, which influences interior heat transport and is critical for understanding the relationship between a global ocean and the planetary energy budget. On the basis of our model, the presence of low salinity layers near the polar ocean–ice interface implies the ocean’s bulk salinity could substantially exceed values inferred from Cassini plume samples. © 2021, The Author(s), under exclusive licence to Springer Nature Limited. Citation statistics:
资源类型: 期刊论文
标识符: http://119.78.100.158/handle/2HF3EXSE/169785
Appears in Collections: 气候变化与战略
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作者单位: Division of Geological and Planetary Sciences, California Institute of Technology, Pasadena, CA, United States; Jet Propulsion Laboratory, California Institute of Technology, Pasadena, CA, United States
Recommended Citation:
Lobo A.H.,Thompson A.F.,Vance S.D.,et al. A pole-to-equator ocean overturning circulation on Enceladus[J]. Nature Geoscience,2021-01-01,14(4)