The upper atmospheres of Uranus and Neptune
Henrik Melin

TL;DR
This review summarizes current knowledge of Uranus and Neptune's upper atmospheres, highlighting the importance of remote sensing and the need for dedicated missions to better understand their atmospheric and magnetic interactions.
Contribution
It provides a comprehensive overview of the state of research on ice giant upper atmospheres and discusses future observational opportunities with upcoming telescopes.
Findings
Upper atmospheres have cooled by about 8 K/year from 1992 to 2018.
H₃⁺ has been detected at Uranus but not yet at Neptune.
Future telescopes like JWST could detect H₃⁺ at Neptune, enabling new insights.
Abstract
We review the current understanding of the upper atmospheres of Uranus and Neptune, and explore the upcoming opportunities available to study these exciting planets. The ice giants are the least understood planets in the solar system, having been only visited by a single spacecraft, in 1986 and 1989, respectively. The upper atmosphere plays a critical role in connecting the atmosphere to the forces and processes contained within the magnetic field. For example, auroral current systems can drive charged particles into the atmosphere, heating it by way of Joule heating. Ground-based observations of H provides a powerful remote diagnostic of the physical properties and processes that occur within the upper atmosphere, and a rich data set exists for Uranus. These observations span almost three decades and have revealed that the upper atmosphere has continuously cooled between 1992 and…
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