COUPLING OF RADIATION TRANSFER, LEVEL AND ELECTRON KINETICS UNDER HIGH-SPEED SHOCK WAVE CONDITIONS IN AN H2/HE MIXTURE

A collisional-radiative model (CRM) of a plasma composed of H2, H+ 2 , H, H+, He, He+, e?, is applied to study the relaxation processes behind an hypersonic shock wave under conditions reproducing an atmospheric entry in Jupiter's atmosphere. The CRM is coupled with a Boltzmann equation solver, for the determination of the electron energy distribution function, and with a radiative transfer equation for calculating the specific intensity In , radiative rate coefficients and radiative energy transfer in one-dimensional slab geometry. The model predicts highly non-equilibrium electron and atomic distributions as well as strong reabsorption of atomic radiation in the post-shock region. A comparison among distributions obtained using optically thick and optically thin plasma approximation against the fully coupled calculation is also presented.