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Goals and objectives

In the last 20 years, knowledge of our planetary system has increased explosively due to the enormous quantity of data supplied both by observational techniques from Earth, as well as by space missions. In particular, the study of the gas surrounding the planets and satellites of the solar system has revealed an important fact of wider validity-incredible diversity both in the composition as well as in physical properties.

Research on these atmospheres should not only answer questions about their origins and different evolutionary processes, but also characterize their current diversity and explain, within the framework of physical models, their overall behaviour. Given that a planetary atmosphere is a highly complex system, its study requires approaches from very different directions. Research actively pursued at present is oriented towards the composition, dynamics, radiation, and energy balances of the medium and high atmospheres of terrestrial planets (Earth, Mars, Venus), of the atmospheres of exterior planets (especially Jupiter and Saturn), and, recently, also of the atmospheres of Titan, the moon of Saturn.

As described in the other pages of the department, most of this research is performed by the construction of theoretical models and their application in the analysis and interpretation of the observations made, both from Earth, as well as with instruments on probe rockets and space platforms.