Description:

Icy moon oceans are promising targets in the search for extraterrestrial life, but characterizing their internal dynamics remains challenging, as most oceanic processes are obscured from direct observation by the overlying ice shell. In contrast, the ice shell itself is relatively accessible to observation and may serve as a window into the ocean below. As the only liquid layer in the system, the subsurface ocean can actively transport heat and momentum, influencing the overlying ice shell in observable ways. Heat transport affects the freezing and melting rates at the ice-ocean interface, potentially leading to measurable variations in ice thickness. Momentum transport can induce non-synchronous rotation of the ice shell relative to the rocky interior. In this talk, I will review how convection, tides, and baroclinic eddies together control oceanic heat and momentum transport. Using Enceladus as an example, we then demonstrate how this understanding can be used to infer the ocean's equation of state and the partitioning of heat production among the ice shell, ocean, and core.

 Wanying Kang, Assistant Professor of Earth and Planetary Sciences, MIT 

Host: Daniel Lecoanet, CIERA