Uranus' stratospheric HCl upper limit from Herschel/SPIRE

Abstract

Herschel/SPIRE observations of Uranus are used to search for stratospheric hydrogen chloride (HCl) emission at 41.74 cm$^{-1}$. HCl was not detected and instead 3$\sigma$ upper limits were determined; $<$6.2 ppb ($<$2.0$\times$10$^{14}$ molecules/cm$^{2}$) for a 0.1 mbar step profile and $<$0.40 ppb ($<$1.2$\times$10$^{14}$ molecules/cm$^{2}$) for a 1 mbar step profile. HCl is expected to have an external source and these upper limits are consistent with abundances of other external species (CO, H$_2$O, CO$_2$) and a solar composition source.