Sensitivity effects of photochemical parameters uncertainties on hydrocarbon production in the atmosphere of Titan Original Research Article

Imprecision carried by the different kinetic parameters included in photochemical models of planetary atmospheres can introduce significant uncertainties in computed mole fractions of chemical species. This imprecision is supposed to be contributing mostly to the inconsistencies between observations and computed predictions. We built a 1D photochemical model with an up to date neutral chemistry to investigate the significance of these uncertainties on the modeling of hydrocarbon photochemistry of Titan’s atmosphere. Monte-Carlo calculations performed on nominal abundances at different altitudes are used to introduce random uncertainty in photochemical rate coefficients and to estimate the uncertainties on the computed hydrocarbon profiles. Implications for further 1D photochemical modeling results are discussed.