Planetary Sciences:

Earth and Beyond

Lecture 10
Origin and Evolution of Planetary Atmospheres
Uniqueness of Earth’s evolution
Introduction
• Planetary atmospheres can exist if the gravitational force of the body (its mass) is
high enough to retain the gases against a variety of processes that favor their
escape.
• The main process is related to temperature, i.e., to the kinetic energy of the
atmospheric atoms and molecules.
• For a planet to retain an atom or molecule, it must be that
𝐺𝑀𝑝
≥ 𝑘𝐵 𝑇
𝑅𝑝
where, Mp and Rp are the mass and radius of the body; T is the absolute gas
temperature; kB is the Boltzmann constant
• The terrestrial planets and major satellites had initial atmospheres formed with
the planet.
• The primary composition of the primitive atmospheres was similar to their bulk
composition
Introduction
• They were rapidly produced by the outgassing of volatiles at the high
planet temperatures caused by the bombardment of planetesimals and
large collisions.
• The atmospheres transform in time and become of a secondary type
evolving from the primordial state as they change their mass and chemical
composition due to their interaction with the surface and external
environment.
• The relative abundance of noble gas isotopes in Venus, Earth, and Mars,
when compared with those found in meteorites, confirm that their actual
atmospheres did not form from the primordial gas in the solar nebula.
• On the other hand, the giant planet atmospheres are so massive that they
have suffered little evolution and they are considered as primary (they
have retained their primordial composition of hydrogen in a 90% with an
additional 10% of helium).
Elemental Abundances and Isotopic Ratios
• The measurement of the relative abundance of the elements and of the
isotopic ratios of stable and radioactive atoms in solar system bodies
provides a very important source for the knowledge of the initial formation
and evolution of the planets and their atmospheres.
• Important elements for this purpose are carbon (C), sulfur (S), nitrogen (N),
and oxygen (O).
• The original isotopic compositions of planetary systems depend on the
stellar nucleosynthesis.
• Analysis of the isotopic ratios among these bodies and their comparison to
the solar abundances provide information on the sources for the bodies
and their atmospheres and on the processes and transformations they
have undergone over time.
Outgassing Processes
• “Outgassing” (or degassing) is the primordial mechanism by which the
atmospheres of the terrestrial-like planets form.
• A proto-atmosphere is formed during the accretion stage that originates these
planets by releasing the gases as the body heats up.
• A second source of outgassing can result from the internal differentiation that
forms the shell structure and core.
• The melting of the mantle injects through the surface vents and volcanic activity
volatiles to the atmosphere.
• For masses above ~0.01𝑀⨁ , the impact of the accreted planetesimals is high
enough to raise the temperatures to ~500–700 K, high enough to vaporize
elements like H, C, N, S, Cl, and the rare gases.
• When the mass of the proto-planet is above ~0.2𝑀⨁ , the proto-atmosphere can
produce an increase of the surface temperatures up to ~1600 K by a blanketing
effect, at which most materials vaporize.
Capture Processes
• The capture of material (grains and gases) from the primordial nebula or
from the debris of the planetary formation (solids that volatize when
entering the planet) contributes significantly as a source for the
atmosphere.
• This is the main mechanism proposed to explain the giant planet
atmospheres under the core accretion theory.
• Following this, on a long-term scale, the solar or stellar wind (the flow of
fully ionized particles escaping from the star) sputters the surfaces of small
mass planets and satellites with thin atmospheres, giving rise to a
continuous source of neutrals for these bodies.
• The mass captured by a planet embedded within the primordial nebula
generates a proto-atmosphere whose pressure and temperature at the
surface can be easily calculated with some simplified assumptions.
Overview
• Carbon dioxide (CO2) forms a massive atmosphere in Venus and dominates that
of Mars although it is much less massive. On Earth, CO2 is trapped beneath the
oceans in the form of calcium carbonate.
• N2 dominates the atmosphere of the Earth and is also abundant on Venus, both
with origins in outgassing and volcanic processes. It is also the most abundant
compound in the satellite Titan, in this last case due to the photochemical
dissociation of ammonia.
• The large amount of O2 on Earth is due to the existence of life. Mercury is small
and too close to the Sun to retain a stable atmosphere. Its tenuous gaseous
envelope is due to released compounds from the surface produced by the solar
wind sputtering.
• The satellites Europa, Ganymede, and Callisto have very tenuous oxygen
atmospheres derived from the particle bombardment of their water ice surfaces
by charged particles present in the Jovian environment.
Overview
• The satellite Io has a volcanic sulfur atmosphere. The satellite Triton and
the dwarf planet Pluto form atmospheres from the sublimation of the
surface ice (nitrogen and methane) as the temperature increases during
the orbital cycle.
• Solar system giant planets (Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus, and Neptune), as well
as the extrasolar giants, have “primary” atmospheres composed basically
of molecular hydrogen (about 85% in mass) with a smaller portion of
helium (about 15%) and very small quantities of the other elements (C, N,
O, etc.) present in reduced forms.
• However, C and N are enriched relative to the Sun (particularly carbon in
Uranus and Neptune) and the noble gases (Ne, Ar, Kr, and Xe) are present
with abundances within a factor of 10 to the solar composition, which
complicates the detailed modeling of the formation of these atmospheres.
Atmospheric Evolution Processes
• All atmospheres are subjected to internal/external processes, but the
retention of gases in massive atmospheres that are also free of surface and
interior interactions make them more stable on a long-term scale.
• However, extrasolar giant and ice-like planets that have migrated to orbits
close to the star suffer a strong blow off in their outer layers, giving rise to
important losses.
• Escape and evolution processes suffered by an atmosphere are divided into
five broad groups according to their external or internal origin
• Erosion and Escape Processes
• Impacts and Collisions
• Surface Processes
• Solar (Stellar) Luminosity Variability
• Orbital Cycles
Erosion and Escape Processes
• Atoms and molecules can escape from the top of planetary atmospheres
through a variety of mechanisms. The erosion processes can be divided in
three broad groups: (1) thermal or Jeans escape, (2) nonthermal or
photochemical escape, and (3) hydrodynamics.
• The features that characterize them are, apart from the involved
mechanism, the region of escape, the escape speed, and mass outflow.
• Thermal “evaporation” or Jeans escape occurs when the fraction of atoms
that reach velocities in excess of the escape velocity
• Other nonthermal processes like photodissociation can dominate the
escape flux of weighted atoms with speeds in excess of the escape velocity
• Hydrodynamical mechanism involves the mass outflow of the atmospheric
gases at sonic speeds when lighter atoms escaping the atmosphere drag
heavier atoms with them that cannot escape by a thermal process.
Impacts and Collisions
• The collision of a large body with a planet or satellite with an
atmosphere can impart enough energy to the gases so they can
obtain the escape velocity.
• It is assumed that the body is not disrupted (the size of the impacting
body Rc ≪ Rp)
• A measure of the effect of an impact is to compare its size with the
atmospheric scale height H.
• If Rc < H, the kinetic energy of the impacting body that is converted
into heat dissipates in a volume that is small relative to the
atmospheric mass and the loss is small. However, if Rc > H, the heated
volume of gas can be blown off.
Surface Processes
• The surface of the terrestrial planets and satellites represents a lower
boundary for the atmosphere, a place where mass exchange and chemical
reactions occur.
• The surface through temperature, among others, is an important
controlling agent for the atmospheric evolution along various timescales.
• Condensation and sublimation of volatile compounds from solid or liquid
deposits at the surface to the atmosphere and adsorption and chemical
weathering are the other important processes that change the
atmospheric structure and composition.
• The atmosphere tends to become stable in composition and mass as long
as the atmosphere contains inert (nonreactive) gases against chemical and
photochemical actions and to condensation and sublimation.
• Biological processes at the surface drastically transformed the atmosphere
of our planet during more than half of its lifetime.
Solar (Stellar) Luminosity Variability
• Long-term evolution of a planetary system and in particular that of a planet and
its atmosphere are directly related to the compulsive phases of its parent star
evolution.
• Once a planetary system is formed, the stellar evolution stages marked by long-
term luminosity (radius and temperature) changes directly affect the evolution of
planetary atmospheres.
• Detailed models of the Sun’s evolution predict that the luminosity was lower by
about 30% of its present value during the first 2.5 Gy, affecting the atmospheric
evolution of the terrestrial planets through their surface temperature.
• Current changes in the solar luminosity related to its magnetic activity (e.g.,
sunspots and its 11 year cycle) affect the short wavelength radiation and
energetic particle emissions
• Variations in the UV irradiance can induce changes in the stratospheric chemistry.
Orbital Cycles
• The solar (or stellar) insolation reaching a planet or satellite depends
primarily on the orbital eccentricity e and on the obliquity i (the tilt of the
rotation axis relative to the orbital plane). This gives rise, on a short
timescale (yearly), to the seasonal radiation and temperature variations
• Mutual gravitational interaction between the planets leads to a long-term
periodic or quasi-periodic variability of their orbital parameters.
• The geological evidence on Earth and Mars shows the long-term signature
(timescales of 104–106 years) of cyclical temperature changes due to the
variability in the incoming solar radiation produced by “orbital cycles.”
• The basic ideas on the cyclical variability of the insolation due to orbital
variability were introduced in the 1920s by Serbian geophysicist and
astronomer M. Milanković (Milankovitch cycles)
The Entire History
• Qualitatively, here is Earth's temperature record
 A Brief History of Events
End of last ice-age – rise of
human civilization
Modern ice-ages begin

Asteroid impact – end of dinosaurs

Cambrian explosion of life –

beginning of fossil record
Time

Earth freezes over? – life survives

in small pockets?

Rise of atmospheric oxygen

Earliest evidence of life –

prokaryotic bacteria

Formation of earth
Our Sun, Younger and Fainter
• We think the Sun was not
always as bright as it is now
• At formation, perhaps 70% of
today’s value

Today
The Faint Young Sun Paradox
• Early Earth equilibrium
temperature should be below
freezing
• So, no liquid water
• Snowball Earth
Water
• No life!
Freezes
• How did we avoid it?

Today
History of the Atmosphere
• Our best guess at the
atmospheric composition
throughout Earth’s lifetime
• Snowball Earth avoided with
lots of CO2 in the air
• Later, increased plant life
converted this to oxygen
Carbon and Silicon

Carbon dioxide Silicon dioxide

• Formula: CO2 • Formula: SiO2
• Occurrence: greenhouse • Occurrence: quartz, sand,
gas sandstone
• Carbonate • Silicate
• Formula: CO3-2 • Formula: SiO3-2
• Occurrence: chalk, • Occurrence: basalts, granite
limestone, marble
 weathering
Carbon in the Atmosphere
Silicate carbonate
• A natural chemical cycle between air and CaSiO3 + CO2 CaCO3 + SiO2
rock:
• Carbon trapped in rock as limestone
• Airborne carbon dioxide byproduct
• Depends on: volcanism
• Volcanic activity
• Exposed land
• Temperature Carbonic acid rain

Soluble ions Carbonates

flow to sea in settle on the
rivers seafloor
Where Earth’s carbon is, now
• Over time, weathering has put the carbon away into rocks

In gigatons
(= 1012 kg)
The Inorganic Carbon Cycle
• Weathering is
• CO2 forming a weak acid in rain
• Dissolve silicate rocks (lava, granite, etc) into carbonate
• Very slow, but slightly faster when warm
• Rain washes carbonates out to the sea
• Carbonates settle on the ocean bottom
• Plate tectonics move ocean bottom down into the Earth (very slow)
• carbonates become silicates deep under the Earth
• Volcanoes release CO2 into the atmosphere
First Evidence of Life
• First evidence of life is from about 3.8 Ga
• Mats of bacteria grow at bottom of shallow water,
• Remove CO2 from water
• Carbonates come out of solution
• Settle on top of bacteria mats
• Bacteria grow on top of the carbonate deposit
• Repeat! Make layers
• Finally become Rock!
What the first life did next
• Algae bacteria
• Consumed CO2 from seawater
• Released O2 into the water
• Ocean waters were full of dissolved iron ions (Fe+2)
• The oxygen in the water reacted with the iron, forming hematite,
Fe2O3, a form of rust
• These iron ions are Fe+3, insoluble in water
• Hematite settled on the sea floor.
• This is the source of major iron deposits on Earth
Removing Iron from Water

• After all the iron

was removed,
oxygen was able 2.0 Ga:
to escape from First
3.8 Ga:
the water to the Earliest
Oxygen in
atmosphere known Atmosphere
life

Iron deposits
The land without oxygen
• Ultraviolet (UV) light is used to kill microbes and larger
life forms
• Without oxygen in the atmosphere, the land on Earth
was sterilized by the Sun every day
• With oxygen to block UV (in form of Ozone), plants
colonized the land about 500 Ma
Plants!
• Plants have roots
• Roots break apart rock
• Same amount of rock, but more silicate exposed to
weathering
• Roots control erosion
• Keeps that busted up rock on land, out of the ocean
• Both of these make the weathering faster (but
still slow)
• We had a nice planet going!
“
One must be sane to think clearly, but one can
think deeply and be quite insane

– Nikola Tesla
”
Next time …
Radiative Transfer
Energy budget of Earth