Pluto’s insolation history: Latitudinal variations and effects on atmospheric pressure

Since previous long-term insolation modeling in the early 1990s, new atmospheric pressure data, increased computational power, and the upcoming flyby of the Pluto system by NASA’s New Horizons spacecraft have generated new motivation and increased capabilities for the study of Pluto’s complex long-term (million-years) insolation history. The two primary topics of interest in studying Pluto’s insolation history are the variations in insolation patterns when integrated over different intervals and the evolution of diurnal insolation patterns over the last several decades. We find latitudinal dichotomies when comparing average insolation over timescales of days, decades, centuries, and millennia, where all timescales we consider are short relative to the predicted timescales for Pluto’s chaotic orbit. Depending on the timescales of volatile migration, some consequences of these insolation patterns may be manifested in the surface features revealed by New Horizons. We find the Maximum Diurnal Insolation (MDI) at any latitude is driven most strongly when Pluto’s obliquity creates a long arctic summer (or “midnight sun”) beginning just after perihelion. Pluto’s atmospheric pressure, as measured through stellar occultation observations during the past three decades, shows a circumstantial correlation with this midnight sun scenario as quantified by the MDI parameter.