How does salinity shape ocean circulation and ice geometry on Enceladus and other icy satellites?
Of profound astrobiological interest is that not only does Enceladus have a water ocean, but it also appears to be salty, important for its likely habitability. Here, we investigate how salinity affects ocean dynamics and equilibrium ice shell geometry and use knowledge of ice shell geometry and tid...
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ftdatacite:10.48550/arxiv.2104.07008 2023-05-15T16:41:05+02:00 How does salinity shape ocean circulation and ice geometry on Enceladus and other icy satellites? Kang, Wanying Mittal, Tushar Bire, Suyash Campin, Jean-Michel Marshall, John 2021 https://dx.doi.org/10.48550/arxiv.2104.07008 https://arxiv.org/abs/2104.07008 unknown arXiv arXiv.org perpetual, non-exclusive license http://arxiv.org/licenses/nonexclusive-distrib/1.0/ Earth and Planetary Astrophysics astro-ph.EP Atmospheric and Oceanic Physics physics.ao-ph FOS Physical sciences Article CreativeWork article Preprint 2021 ftdatacite https://doi.org/10.48550/arxiv.2104.07008 2022-03-10T14:19:39Z Of profound astrobiological interest is that not only does Enceladus have a water ocean, but it also appears to be salty, important for its likely habitability. Here, we investigate how salinity affects ocean dynamics and equilibrium ice shell geometry and use knowledge of ice shell geometry and tidal heating rates to help constrain ocean salinity. We show that the vertical overturning circulation of the ocean, driven from above by melting and freezing and the temperature dependence of the freezing point of water on pressure, has opposing signs at very low and very high salinities. In both cases, heat and freshwater converges toward the equator, where the ice is thick, acting to homogenize thickness variations. In order to maintain observed ice thickness variations, ocean heat convergence should not overwhelm heat loss rates through the equatorial ice sheet. This can only happen when the ocean's salinity has intermediate values, order $20$~psu. In this case polar-sinking driven by meridional temperature variations is largely canceled by equatorial-sinking circulation driven by salinity variations and a consistent ocean circulation, ice shell geometry and tidal heating rate can be achieved. Article in Journal/Newspaper Ice Sheet DataCite Metadata Store (German National Library of Science and Technology) |
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DataCite Metadata Store (German National Library of Science and Technology) |
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language |
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Earth and Planetary Astrophysics astro-ph.EP Atmospheric and Oceanic Physics physics.ao-ph FOS Physical sciences |
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Earth and Planetary Astrophysics astro-ph.EP Atmospheric and Oceanic Physics physics.ao-ph FOS Physical sciences Kang, Wanying Mittal, Tushar Bire, Suyash Campin, Jean-Michel Marshall, John How does salinity shape ocean circulation and ice geometry on Enceladus and other icy satellites? |
topic_facet |
Earth and Planetary Astrophysics astro-ph.EP Atmospheric and Oceanic Physics physics.ao-ph FOS Physical sciences |
description |
Of profound astrobiological interest is that not only does Enceladus have a water ocean, but it also appears to be salty, important for its likely habitability. Here, we investigate how salinity affects ocean dynamics and equilibrium ice shell geometry and use knowledge of ice shell geometry and tidal heating rates to help constrain ocean salinity. We show that the vertical overturning circulation of the ocean, driven from above by melting and freezing and the temperature dependence of the freezing point of water on pressure, has opposing signs at very low and very high salinities. In both cases, heat and freshwater converges toward the equator, where the ice is thick, acting to homogenize thickness variations. In order to maintain observed ice thickness variations, ocean heat convergence should not overwhelm heat loss rates through the equatorial ice sheet. This can only happen when the ocean's salinity has intermediate values, order $20$~psu. In this case polar-sinking driven by meridional temperature variations is largely canceled by equatorial-sinking circulation driven by salinity variations and a consistent ocean circulation, ice shell geometry and tidal heating rate can be achieved. |
format |
Article in Journal/Newspaper |
author |
Kang, Wanying Mittal, Tushar Bire, Suyash Campin, Jean-Michel Marshall, John |
author_facet |
Kang, Wanying Mittal, Tushar Bire, Suyash Campin, Jean-Michel Marshall, John |
author_sort |
Kang, Wanying |
title |
How does salinity shape ocean circulation and ice geometry on Enceladus and other icy satellites? |
title_short |
How does salinity shape ocean circulation and ice geometry on Enceladus and other icy satellites? |
title_full |
How does salinity shape ocean circulation and ice geometry on Enceladus and other icy satellites? |
title_fullStr |
How does salinity shape ocean circulation and ice geometry on Enceladus and other icy satellites? |
title_full_unstemmed |
How does salinity shape ocean circulation and ice geometry on Enceladus and other icy satellites? |
title_sort |
how does salinity shape ocean circulation and ice geometry on enceladus and other icy satellites? |
publisher |
arXiv |
publishDate |
2021 |
url |
https://dx.doi.org/10.48550/arxiv.2104.07008 https://arxiv.org/abs/2104.07008 |
genre |
Ice Sheet |
genre_facet |
Ice Sheet |
op_rights |
arXiv.org perpetual, non-exclusive license http://arxiv.org/licenses/nonexclusive-distrib/1.0/ |
op_doi |
https://doi.org/10.48550/arxiv.2104.07008 |
_version_ |
1766031528263942144 |