Trace constituents of Europaʹs atmosphere

Europa is bombarded by intense radiation that erodes the surface, launching molecules into a thin “atmosphere” representative of surface composition. In addition to atoms and molecules created in the mostly water ice surface such as H2O, O2, H2, the atmosphere is known to have species representative of trace surface materials. These trace species are carried off with the 10–104 H2O molecules ejected by each energetic heavy ion, a process we have simulated using molecular dynamics. Using the results of those simulations, we found that a neutral mass spectrometer orbiting ∼100 km above the surface could detect species with surface concentrations above ∼0.03%. We have also modeled the atmospheric spatial structure of the volatile species CO2 and SO2 under a variety of assumptions. Detections of these species with moderate time and space resolution would allow us to constrain surface composition, chemistry and to study space weathering processes.