Abstract
Environmental Context. Meteoric ablation profoundly influences the spectroscopic, chemical, and thermal properties of Earth’s upper atmosphere, yet much of the chemical processing of meteor-derived material remains a mystery. As the most abundant main-group metal in meteoric material, magnesium likely plays an important or dominant role but its mesospheric chemistry has received comparatively little study to date.
Abstract. High-level quantum chemical calculations address the structural and thermochemical properties of several novel magnesium-containing molecular ions which, we argue, are relevant to the Mg+ chemistry initiated by meteoric ablation in the mesosphere. A model for Mg+ chemistry is evaluated, with results indicating that most ionized magnesium at altitudes of 90 km and below is rapidly hydrated due to the association reactions of the pivotal HOMg+ ion. The implications of this new mechanism, apparently leading towards noctilucent cloud nucleation by Mg+, are briefly explored.
Subject
Geochemistry and Petrology,Environmental Chemistry,Chemistry (miscellaneous)
Cited by
5 articles.
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1. A kinetic study of Mg+ and Mg-containing ions reacting with O3, O2, N2, CO2, N2O and H2O: implications for magnesium ion chemistry in the upper atmosphere;Physical Chemistry Chemical Physics;2011
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5. Reflections on Aluminium: Some Thoughts on the Mesospheric Processing of Ablated Meteoric Al+;Environmental Chemistry;2005