A Versatile Physicochemical Model for Small Solar System Bodies (SUISEI)

Daniel C Boice

Presentation information

[EE] Oral

P (Space and Planetary Sciences) » P-PS Planetary Sciences

[P-PS02] [EE] Small Bodies: Exploration of the Asteroid Belt and the Solar System at Large

Sun. May 21, 2017 9:00 AM - 10:30 AM 103 (International Conference Hall 1F)

convener:eleonora ammannito(University of California Los Angeles), Taishi Nakamoto(Tokyo Institute of Technology), Masanao Abe(Institute of Space and Astronautical Science, Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency), Christopher T Russell(University of California Los Angeles), Sei-ichiro WATANABE(Division of Earth and Planetary Sciences, Graduate School of Science, Nagoya University), Chairperson:Taishi Nakamoto(Tokyo Institute of Technology)

10:00 AM - 10:15 AM

[PPS02-05] A Versatile Physicochemical Model for Small Solar System Bodies (SUISEI)

*Daniel C Boice¹ (1.Scientific Studies and Consulting)

Keywords:Comets, Reactive Gas Dynamics, Coma Chemistry, Cometary Dust, Comet 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko, (3200) Phaethon

A suite of computational tools, named SUISEI, has been developed over the past decades and successfully applied to interpret observations of comets. A brief overview of SUISEI will be given; including ComChem, a global, multifluid gas dynamics simulation with detailed chemical kinetics of the cometary coma; coupled with ComDust, a model of comet dust evolution and interaction with gas; and ComNuc, a 3-D simulation of gas and heat flow within the comet nucleus porous subsurface layers. The combination of these tools have resulted in an improved knowledge of chemical species that form in cometary environments and their relationship to native molecules that exist in the nucleus ices by analyzing space- and ground-based observations and in situ measurements by instrumentation onboard spacecraft missions. This model is especially timely with the recent encounter of ESA’s Rosetta spacecraft with Comet 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko which ended in September 2016. Applications of SUISEI will be made to comets and the near-Sun object, (3200) Phaethon.