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Loss of oxygen from Venus

Published Web Location

https://doi.org/10.1029/GL009i006p00649
Creative Commons 'BY' version 4.0 license
Abstract

Ionization of thermal and non-thermal oxygen atoms above the plasmapause on Venus supplies an escape flux for O averaging 6 × 106atoms cm ²sec−1. Hydrogen and oxygen atoms escape with stoichiometry characteristic of water. It is argued that escape of H is controlled by the oxidation state of the atmosphere, regulated by escape of O.


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