Fig. 34. Ice Sublimation Rates Compared to Gardening and Sputtering Rates
on the Galilean Satellites.
The contours show log10 of the one-way sublimation rate in mm
yr-1, assuming instantaneous equilibrium with sunlight and a
heliocentric distance of 5.2 A.U., as a function of albedo and latitude.
The contour value for which one-way sublimation equals the expected micrometeorite
gardening rate (from Fig. 33) is shown as a dashed
line. The symbols labelled `Callisto', `Ganymede', and `Europa' show the
expected sputtering rates on the 3 bodies, taken from Tables VIII and IX,
Appendix D. The tick mark on the top of each symbol identifies the contour
for the sputtering rate for low-energy ions. The three tick marks below
show rates for high-energy ions, assuming a plasma composition of S, O,
or H, in order of decreasing rate. Note: contours are hand-drawn from tabulated
data, and their locations are not exact, though errors are smaller than
the contour separation.
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