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There is now a CONTENT FREEZE for Mercury while we switch to a new platform. It began on Friday, March 10 at 6pm and will end on Wednesday, March 15 at noon. No new content can be created during this time, but all material in the system as of the beginning of the freeze will be migrated to the new platform, including users and groups. Functionally the new site is identical to the old one. webteam@gatech.edu
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COLLEGE OF SCIENCES
SCHOOL OF EARTH AND ATMOSPHERIC SCIENCES
EAS Ph.D. Defense
George McDonald
July 11, 2018
11:30 PM
Earth and Atmospheric Sciences
Ford Environmental Science & Technology (ES&T)311 Ferst Drive, ES&TAtlanta, GA 30332-0340Web: eas.gatech.edu
ES&T
L1114
Title: The impacts of atmospheric radiation on studies of planetary habitability
Committee members: Dr. Simon, Dr. Wray, Dr. Sokolik, Dr. Steffes(ECE), Dr. Lopez (NASA)
Announcement Abstract: Announcement Abstract: The conditions required for Earth-like life to emerge on a planetary body are thought to include the presence of liquid water, the availability of energy and the existence of organic material. There are situations when determining whether the above conditions exist on a planetary body is not possible without a detailed understanding of the radiative processes occurring in a planet's atmosphere. In this work, studies of the radiative flux and transfer within planetary atmospheres are carried out in order to elucidate whether certain planetary bodies may be habitable. The first section of this work quantifies the impinging X-ray flux on sub-Neptune sized planets in the Kepler spacecraft dataset to determine the conditions for such planets to be stripped of their primordial atmospheres, with implications for the stability of liquid water on their surfaces. In the second part, the absorption of light in the atmosphere of Saturn's largest moon Titan due to methane and other gases is modeled in order to understand how close to the surface one has to be to detect organic molecules of prebiotic relevance, including amino acids and nucleobases.
