Titan , Mars and Earth : Entropy Production by Latitudinal Heat Transport
نویسندگان
چکیده
Temperature contrasts between warm tropics and cool high latitudes depends on how efficiently heat is transported by the atmosphere (and oceans) from the tropics. This heat transport is generally assumed to be proportional to atmospheric pressure, but we show with a simple model that this prediction fails by orders of magnitude for Mars and Titan. However, a basic principle, previously postulated for the Earth, does successfully predict the heat flows and zonal temperatures of Mars and Titan. The circulation predicted by this Maximum Entropy Production (MEP) principle is consistent with Titan’s observed zonal structure and the winds and CO2 frost cycle on Mars. The principle makes powerful predictions where detailed information is lacking, such as on the early Earth and on possibly habitable extrasolar planets.
منابع مشابه
Planets, life and the production of entropy
Two thermodynamic principles offer considerable insight into the climatic and geological settings for life on other planets, namely (1) that natural systems tend to actually achieve the ideal (‘Carnot’) limit of conversion of heat into work and (2) if a fluid system such as an atmosphere has sufficient degrees of freedom, it will choose the degree of heat transport that maximizes the generation...
متن کاملThe Second Law of Thermodynamics and the Global Climate System: a Review of the Maximum Entropy Production Principle
[1] The long-term mean properties of the global climate system and those of turbulent fluid systems are reviewed from a thermodynamic viewpoint. Two general expressions are derived for a rate of entropy production due to thermal and viscous dissipation (turbulent dissipation) in a fluid system. It is shown with these expressions that maximum entropy production in the Earth s climate system sugg...
متن کاملThe potential importance of non-local, deep transport on the energetics, momentum, chemistry, and aerosol distributions in the atmospheres of Earth, Mars, and Titan
A review of non-local, deep transport mechanisms in the atmosphere of Earth provides a good foundation for examining whether similar mechanisms are operating in the atmospheres of Mars and Titan. On Earth, deep convective clouds in the tropics constitute the upward branch of the Hadley Cell and provide a conduit through which energy, moisture, momentum, aerosols, and chemical species are moved ...
متن کاملThe two-box model of climate: limitations and applications to planetary habitability and maximum entropy production studies.
The 'two-box model' of planetary climate is discussed. This model has been used to demonstrate consistency of the equator-pole temperature gradient on Earth, Mars and Titan with what would be predicted from a principle of maximum entropy production (MEP). While useful for exposition and for generating first-order estimates of planetary heat transports, it has too low a resolution to investigate...
متن کاملSediment transport by liquid surficial flow: Application to Titan
Sediment transport by surficial flow likely occurs on Titan. Titan is thought to have a volatile cycle, such as on Earth and likely in the past on Mars, which would entail surficial liquid flow. And surficial flow is implied in interpretations of Cassini–Hyugens data as showing fluvial channels, which would require sediment transport by surficial flow to form the observable features. We present...
متن کامل