Internal Energy Dissipation in Enceladus's Subsurface Ocean From Tides and Libration and the Role of Inertial Waves

Rekier, J.;Trinh, A.;Triana, S. A.;Dehant, Véronique
(2019) Journal of Geophysical Research: Planets — Vol. 124, n° 8, p. 2198-2212 (2019)

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  • Rekier, J.orcid-logoEnceladus is characterized by a south polar hot spot associated with a large outflow of heat, the source of which remains unclear. We compute the heat generated via viscous dissipation resulting from tidal and (longitudinal) libration forcing in the moon's subsurface ocean using the linearized Navier‐Stokes equation in a three‐dimensional spherical model. We conclude that libration is the dominant cause of dissipation at the linear order, providing up to ∼0.001 GW of heat to the ocean, which remains insufficient to explain the ∼10 GW observed by Cassini. We also illustrate how resonances with inertial modes can significantly augment the dissipation. Our work is an extension to Rovira‐Navarro et al. (2019, https://doi.org/10.1016/j.icarus.2018.11.010) to include the effects of libration and the presence of the icy crust. The model developed here is readily applicable to the study of other moons with a subsurface ocean and planets with a liquid core.
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  • Trinh, A.
    Author
  • Triana, S. A.orcid-logo
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  • Dehant, Véroniqueorcid-logoUCLouvain
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Abstract
Enceladus is characterized by a south polar hot spot associated with a large outflow of heat, the source of which remains unclear. We compute the heat generated via viscous dissipation resulting from tidal and (longitudinal) libration forcing in the moon's subsurface ocean using the linearized Navier‐Stokes equation in a three‐dimensional spherical model. We conclude that libration is the dominant cause of dissipation at the linear order, providing up to ∼0.001 GW of heat to the ocean, which remains insufficient to explain the ∼10 GW observed by Cassini. We also illustrate how resonances with inertial modes can significantly augment the dissipation. Our work is an extension to Rovira‐Navarro et al. (2019, https://doi.org/10.1016/j.icarus.2018.11.010) to include the effects of libration and the presence of the icy crust. The model developed here is readily applicable to the study of other moons with a subsurface ocean and planets with a liquid core.
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Rekier, J., Trinh, A., Triana, S. A., & Dehant, V. (2019). Internal Energy Dissipation in Enceladus’s Subsurface Ocean From Tides and Libration and the Role of Inertial Waves. Journal of Geophysical Research: Planets, 124(8), 2198-2212. https://doi.org/10.1029/2019je005988 (Original work published 2019)