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Thompson et al. 1987
Thompson, W.R., Henry, T., Khare, B.N., Flynn, L., Schwartz, J. and Sagan, C. (1987). Light hydrocarbons from plasma discharge in H2-He-CH4: first results and Uranian auroral chemistry. Journal of Geophysical Research 92: doi: 10.1029/JA080i013p15083. issn: 0148-0227.

Voyager 2 found that the Uranian magnetosphere has a substantial flux of energetic charged particles, which becomes rich in higher energie at low magnetospheric L near the orbit of Miranda. The electrons precipitate to produce aurorae, which have been observed in the ultraviolet. The more energetic component of the precipitating electrons can initiate radiation chemistry in the methane-poor stratosphere, near 0.1 mbar where the CH4 mole fraction X CH4≂10-5. We present laboratory results for cold plasma (glow) discharge in continuous-flow H2-he-CH4 atmospheres with mol fractions X CH4=10-2 to 10-3 and total pressure p=60 to 0.6 mbar. The yields of simple hydrocarbons in these experiments and an estimate of precipitating electron flux consistent with the Voyager ultraviolet spectroscopy results indicate that the globally averaged auroral processing rate of CH4 to higher hydrocarbons ≂3¿106 C cm-2 s-1, comparable to the globally averaged photochemical production rate. The local rate ~2¿108 C cm-2 s-Su1 in the auroral zones (~20¿ in diameter) at 15¿ S and 45¿ N lAtitude greatly exceeds the photochemical rate. Even at very low X CH4≂10-3 the yield (summed over all products) G>10-2 C/100 eV and the average slope &agr;=⟨log10{&eegr;J[C&eegr;Hx>/(&eegr;-1)J[D&eegr;-1Hx>}⟩ >-0.4, where the summation is over all product molecules of a given carbon number &eegr; and the square brackets denote abundance. The yield therefore decreases slowly with molecular complexity: hydrocarbons through C7Hx should be present in auroral zones at abundances >10-2 of the simplest C2 hydrocarbons. Saturated hydrocarbons (C2H6, D3H8, C4H10, etc.) are mostly shielded from photodissociation by C2H2 and will therefore persist at the sunlit, as well as the currently dark, magnetic polar regions. ¿ American Geophysical Union 1987

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Journal of Geophysical Research
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