Results are presented for thermochemical equilibrium calculations of several hundred gases in Saturn's hot deep atmosphere with the most significant thermochemical kinetics incorporated in a chemical-dynamical model designed to predict nonequilibrium trace abundances in the cool upper atmosphere. A baseline model assuming an adiabatic lapse rate in Saturn's troposphere (2.5 times solar elemental abundances) and a vertical eddy diffusion coefficient were employed; the sensitivity of the results to variations in elemental abundance and K values was studied. The most abundant trace gas derived from Saturn's deep atmosphere was predicted to be nitrogen; only PH3 was observed on Saturn. The paradox associated with the GeH4 mixing ratio is resolved when GeH4 destruction by reaction with H atoms (from NH3 and PH3) is taken into account together with photolysis and the photochemical destruction of GeH4 above the clouds. It is concluded that, while Saturn's deep-atmospheric vertical mixing is predicted to be the major source of N2, PH3, HCN, and CH3NH2 in Saturn's visible atmosphere, photochemical reactions compete with vertical mixing as a source of CO.
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B. et al. (1985) studied this question.