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D. Deming (GSFC), J. Harrington (Cornell Univ.)
We have further developed our ballistic Monte-Carlo plume and radiative-hydrodynamic model of the Shoemaker-Levy 9 plume "splashbacks". Our previous model (to appear in Ap.J., November 1, 2001) produces synthetic light curves which strongly resemble the observed infrared "main event" light curves. The model also allows us to identify the nature of several previously unexplained phenomena ("third precursors", the "flare", the "bounce", etc.) We are now incorporating wavelength-dependent opacities for major gaseous species (water, methane, etc.) as well as opacities for several plausible grain compositions. We track the deposition and settling of tracer grains by explicit integration of a grain momentum equation. We expect that these improvements to the model will further strengthen the agreement with observations, and will eventually allow us to determine masses and compositions for the impacting fragments.
This work is supported by the NASA Planetary Atmospheres program.