{"id":{"repo_id":"gatech","oai_identifier":"oai:repository.gatech.edu:1853/60297"},"canonical_url":"https://search.dev.ndltd.org/etd/gatech/oai:repository.gatech.edu:1853/60297","repository":{"repo_id":"gatech","name":"Georgia Tech","base_url":"https://repository.gatech.edu/server/oai/request"},"display":{"title":"The impacts of atmospheric radiation on studies of planetary habitability","abstract":"The conditions required for Earth-like life to emerge on a planet are thought to include the presence of liquid water, the availability of energy, the existence of organic material, and shielding from high energy charged particles. There are situations when determining whether these conditions exist on a planetary body is not possible without a detailed understanding of the radiative processes occurring in a planet’s atmosphere. In this work, studies of the radiative flux and transfer within planetary atmospheres are carried out in order to elucidate whether certain planetary bodies may be habitable. The first section of this work quantifies the impinging X-ray flux on sub-Neptune sized planets in the Kepler spacecraft dataset. This study determines the conditions for such planets to be stripped of their primordial atmospheres, with implications for the stability of liquid water on their surfaces. In the second part, the absorption of light in the atmosphere of Saturn’s largest moon Titan is modeled in order to understand how close to the surface one has to be to detect organic molecules of prebiotic relevance, including amino acids and nucleobases.","abstract_html":"The conditions required for Earth-like life to emerge on a planet are thought to include the presence of liquid water, the availability of energy, the existence of organic material, and shielding from high energy charged particles. There are situations when determining whether these conditions exist on a planetary body is not possible without a detailed understanding of the radiative processes occurring in a planet’s atmosphere. In this work, studies of the radiative flux and transfer within planetary atmospheres are carried out in order to elucidate whether certain planetary bodies may be habitable. The first section of this work quantifies the impinging X-ray flux on sub-Neptune sized planets in the Kepler spacecraft dataset. This study determines the conditions for such planets to be stripped of their primordial atmospheres, with implications for the stability of liquid water on their surfaces. In the second part, the absorption of light in the atmosphere of Saturn’s largest moon Titan is modeled in order to understand how close to the surface one has to be to detect organic molecules of prebiotic relevance, including amino acids and nucleobases.","abstract_has_math":false,"creators":["McDonald, George D."],"institution":"Georgia Institute of Technology","degree_name":null,"degree_level":"Doctoral","degree_discipline":null,"degree_department":"Earth and Atmospheric Sciences","school":null,"contributors":[],"advisors":["Wray, James J."],"committee_chairs":[],"committee_members":["Simon, Sven","Sokolik, Irina","Steffes, Paul","Lopez, Eric D."],"year":2018,"date_issued":"2018-07-26","date_published":"2018-07-26","updated_at":"2026-07-27T19:49:22Z","subjects":["Planetary science","Atmospheric science","Radiative transfer","Astronomy","Exoplanets","Titan"],"languages":["en_US"],"rights":[],"rights_urls":[],"identifier_entries":[]},"links":{"outbound_url":"http://hdl.handle.net/1853/60297","outbound_label":"Handle","outbound_source":"dc:identifier.uri"},"metadata_groups":[{"id":"people","label":"People","entries":[{"key":"dc:contributor.advisor","label":"Advisor","values":["Wray, James J."]},{"key":"dc:contributor.committeemember","label":"Committee Member","values":["Simon, Sven","Sokolik, Irina","Steffes, Paul","Lopez, Eric D."]},{"key":"dc:contributor.department","label":"Department","values":["Earth and Atmospheric Sciences"]},{"key":"dc:creator","label":"Author","values":["McDonald, George D."]}]},{"id":"academic_context","label":"Academic Context","entries":[{"key":"dc:date.accessioned","label":"Dc Date Accessioned","values":["2018-08-20T15:38:37Z"]},{"key":"dc:date.available","label":"Dc Date Available","values":["2018-08-20T15:38:37Z"]},{"key":"dc:date.issued","label":"Date","values":["2018-07-26"]},{"key":"dc:publisher","label":"Institution","values":["Georgia Institute of Technology"]},{"key":"dc:type","label":"Dc Type","values":["Text"]},{"key":"thesis:degree_level","label":"Degree Level","values":["Doctoral"]}]},{"id":"subjects_keywords","label":"Subjects and Keywords","entries":[{"key":"dc:subject","label":"Dc Subject","values":["Planetary science","Atmospheric science","Radiative transfer","Astronomy","Exoplanets","Titan"]}]},{"id":"language_rights","label":"Language and Rights","entries":[{"key":"dc:language.iso","label":"Language (ISO)","values":["en_US"]}]},{"id":"identifiers","label":"Identifiers","entries":[{"key":"dc:identifier.uri","label":"Identifier URI","values":["http://hdl.handle.net/1853/60297"]}]},{"id":"additional","label":"Additional Metadata","entries":[{"key":"dc:description.abstract","label":"Abstract","values":["The conditions required for Earth-like life to emerge on a planet are thought to include the presence of liquid water, the availability of energy, the existence of organic material, and shielding from high energy charged particles. 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