Issue |
A&A
Volume 631, November 2019
|
|
---|---|---|
Article Number | A164 | |
Number of page(s) | 7 | |
Section | Astrophysical processes | |
DOI | https://doi.org/10.1051/0004-6361/201936235 | |
Published online | 15 November 2019 |
Scattering, absorption, and thermal emission by large cometary dust particles: Synoptic numerical solution
Max Planck Institute for Solar System Research, Justus-von-Liebig-Weg 3, 37077 Göttingen, Germany
e-mail: markkanen@mps.mpg.de
Received:
4
July
2019
Accepted:
25
September
2019
Context. Remote light scattering and thermal infrared observations provide clues about the physical properties of cometary and interplanetary dust particles. Identifying these properties will lead to a better understanding of the formation and evolution of the Solar System.
Aims. We present a numerical solution for the radiative and conductive heat transport in a random particulate medium enclosed by an arbitrarily shaped surface. The method will be applied to study thermal properties of cometary dust particles.
Methods. The recently introduced incoherent Monte Carlo radiative transfer method developed for scattering, absorption, and propagation of electromagnetic waves in dense discrete random media is extended for radiative heat transfer and thermal emission. The solution is coupled with the conductive Fourier transport equation that is solved with the finite-element method.
Results. The proposed method allows the synoptic analysis of light scattering and thermal emission by large cometary dust particles consisting of submicrometer-sized grains. In particular, we show that these particles can sustain significant temperature gradients resulting in the superheating factor phase function observed for the coma of comet 67P/Churyumov–Gerasimenko.
Key words: radiative transfer / methods: numerical / comets: individual: 67P/Churyumov–Gerasimenko
© J. Markkanen and J. Agarwal 2019
Open Access article, published by EDP Sciences, under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.
Open Access funding provided by Max Planck Society.
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