Atmospheric Loss Calculator

Planetesimal Impact Loss

Sinclair & Wyatt (2021)

Impactor density (kg/m³) Schlichting and Mukhopadhyay (2018) Impact velocity / escape velocity

Single impactor mass (kg)

Collective impactor mass (kg) Minimum diameter (m) Schlichting and Mukhopadhyay (2018) Maximum diameter (m) Schlichting and Mukhopadhyay (2018) Differential index q Hartmann (1964); Dohnanyi (1969); Neukum et al. (2001) Integration bins

Calculation steps and references

The impact regime is classified with \(H_{1/2}\) and \(H_{\mathrm{fr}}\) using the modified Sinclair and Wyatt (2021) coefficients.
Cratering loss uses the erosional efficiency \(\xi\) and \(\chi_a(\xi)\) prescription from Shuvalov (2009).
The single-impact atmospheric cap uses the polar-cap limit from Schlichting et al. (2015).
Aerial-burst loss uses the Shuvalov et al. (2014) scaling.
Collective-mass mode integrates over a power-law size distribution \(dN/dD \propto D^{-q}\) using the bounds and \(q\) values discussed in the notes: Hartmann (1964), Dohnanyi (1969), Neukum et al. (2001), and Schlichting and Mukhopadhyay (2018).

Collective mode uses a deterministic size-distribution integration, not a random draw, so repeated calculations are stable.

Giant Impact Loss

Kegerreis et al. (2020)

Impactor mass (Earth masses) Kegerreis et al. (2020) Impact velocity / escape velocity Impact parameter b Kegerreis et al. (2020)