Natalie Wolfenbarger
Postdoctoral Scholar, Geophysics
All Publications
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Feasibility of Passive Sounding of Uranian Moons Using Uranian Kilometric Radiation
EARTH AND SPACE SCIENCE
2024; 11 (2)
View details for DOI 10.1029/2023EA003013
View details for Web of Science ID 001154799300001
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Exploring the Interior of Europa with the Europa Clipper.
Space science reviews
2023; 219 (6): 46
Abstract
The Galileo mission to Jupiter revealed that Europa is an ocean world. The Galileo magnetometer experiment in particular provided strong evidence for a salty subsurface ocean beneath the ice shell, likely in contact with the rocky core. Within the ice shell and ocean, a number of tectonic and geodynamic processes may operate today or have operated at some point in the past, including solid ice convection, diapirism, subsumption, and interstitial lake formation. The science objectives of the Europa Clipper mission include the characterization of Europa's interior; confirmation of the presence of a subsurface ocean; identification of constraints on the depth to this ocean, and on its salinity and thickness; and determination of processes of material exchange between the surface, ice shell, and ocean. Three broad categories of investigation are planned to interrogate different aspects of the subsurface structure and properties of the ice shell and ocean: magnetic induction, subsurface radar sounding, and tidal deformation. These investigations are supplemented by several auxiliary measurements. Alone, each of these investigations will reveal unique information. Together, the synergy between these investigations will expose the secrets of the Europan interior in unprecedented detail, an essential step in evaluating the habitability of this ocean world.
View details for DOI 10.1007/s11214-023-00990-y
View details for PubMedID 37636325
View details for PubMedCentralID PMC10457249
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Radar Attenuation in Enceladus' Ice Shell: Obstacles and Opportunities for Constraining Shell Thickness, Chemistry, and Thermal Structure
JOURNAL OF GEOPHYSICAL RESEARCH-PLANETS
2023; 128 (2)
View details for DOI 10.1029/2022JE007626
View details for Web of Science ID 000936137400001
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Brine Volume Fraction as a Habitability Metric for Europa's Ice Shell
GEOPHYSICAL RESEARCH LETTERS
2022; 49 (22)
View details for DOI 10.1029/2022GL100586
View details for Web of Science ID 000889481200001
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Compositional Controls on the Distribution of Brine in Europa's Ice Shell
JOURNAL OF GEOPHYSICAL RESEARCH-SOLID EARTH
2022; 127 (9)
View details for DOI 10.1029/2022JE007305
View details for Web of Science ID 000855309400001