Plasma radiation for atmospheric entry at Titan: Emission spectroscopy measurements and numerical rebuilding

• Published in: Journal of plasma physics 2013-10, Vol.79 (5), p.525-534
• Main Authors: SOBBIA, R., LEYLAND, P., BABOU, Y., POTTER, D., MARRAFFA, L.
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: Atmosphere; Emission measurements; Emission spectroscopy; High temperature; Methane; Numerical analysis; Plasma; Plasma physics; Radiation; Radiative transfer; Wind tunnels
• ISSN: 0022-3778; 1469-7807
• DOI: 10.1017/S0022377812000888

Emission spectroscopy measurements on a plasma representative of Titan atmosphere composition were obtained in the Inductively Coupled Plasma wind tunnel facility (VKI-Minitorch) at the von Karman Institute in Belgium. Temperatures ranged from 3600 to 5000 K, pressure was fixed at 300 mbar, and the molar composition was 1.9% CH4 and 98.1% N2. The high-pressure plasma was produced to obtain conditions close to equilibrium. In conjunction, line-by-line calculations have been carried out to assess the reliability of two distinct sets of molecular electronic transition moments, recently released, by predicting the radiative signature of high-temperature N2–CH4 plasma. The radiative transfer problem was solved by considering the plasma plume at local thermodynamic equilibrium conditions in an axisymmetric configuration. Comparisons between the synthetic and experimental spectra demonstrated good agreement for the CN Violet and high-wavelength CN Red bands, while some discrepancies were observed for the C2 Swan bands and low-wavelength CN Red bands.