Comment on "Phosphine in the Venusian atmosphere: a strict upper limit from SOFIA GREAT observations" by Cordiner et al.
Author(s)
Type
Journal Article
Abstract
Searches for phosphine in Venus' atmosphere have sparked a debate. Cordiner et al. (2022, https://doi.org/10.1029/2022gl101055) analyze spectra from the Stratospheric Observatory For Infrared Astronomy (SOFIA) and infer <0.8 ppb of PH3. We noticed that some spectral artifacts arose from non-essential calibration-load signals. By-passing these signals allows simpler post-processing and a 5.7σ candidate detection, suggesting ∼3 ppb of PH3 above the clouds. Compiling six phosphine results hints at an inverted abundance trend: decreasing above the clouds but rising again in the mesosphere from some unexplained source. However, no such extra source is needed if phosphine is undergoing destruction by sunlight (photolysis), to a similar degree as on Earth. Low phosphine values/limits are found where the viewed part of the super-rotating Venusian atmosphere had passed through sunlight, while high values are from views moving into sunlight. We suggest Venusian phosphine is indeed present, and so merits further work on models of its origins.
Date Issued
2023-12-16
Date Acceptance
2023-06-26
Citation
Geophysical Research Letters, 2023, 50 (23)
ISSN
0094-8276
Publisher
Wiley
Journal / Book Title
Geophysical Research Letters
Volume
50
Issue
23
Copyright Statement
© 2023. The Authors. Geophysical Research Letters published by Wiley Periodicals LLC on behalf of American Geophysical Union. This is an open access article under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits use, distribution and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.
License URL
Identifier
10.1029/2023GL103539
Subjects
Geology
Geosciences, Multidisciplinary
phosphine
Physical Sciences
planetary atmospheres
Science & Technology
spectroscopy
Venus
Publication Status
Published
Article Number
e2023GL103539
Date Publish Online
2023-12-06