H3+ cooling in planetary atmospheres

• DOI: 10.1039/c004152c
• Publication Date: 2010-07-07T14:00:20Z
• Authors: Steve Miller; Tom Stallard; Henrik Melin; Jonathan Tennyson
• Keywords: Thermostat

We review the role of H3+ in planetary atmospheres, with a particular emphasis on its effect cooling and stabilising, an that has been termed "H3+ thermostat" (see Miller et al., Philos. Trans. R. Soc. London, Ser. A, 2000, 58, 2485). In course our analysis this effect, we found functions make use partition function, Q(T) based calculated energy levels Neale Tennyson (Astrophys. J., 1995, 454, L169) may underestimate just how much ion is radiating to space. So present new fit values accurate within 2% for range 100 K 10 000 K, very significant improvement originally provided by themselves. also from only those computed first principles, which be more appropriate scientists wishing calculate amount atmospheric ion.