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Polar Ice Sublimation Front: Radial Energy-Balance Model

Interactive 2D simulator of a statite orbital-mirror swarm's beam heating a planet's polar CO2 ice cap: a 48-ring radial energy-balance model solves absorbed flux, Stefan-Boltzmann radiative loss and inter-ring lateral conduction per ring, pins each ring's temperature at the CO2 frost point once it is reached and converts any further input into latent-heat sublimation, so a real depletion front spreads outward from the beam's footprint instead of one shrinking whole-cap number.

Aerospace Engineering & Orbital Mechanics2DAdvanced60 FPS📱 Mobile-adapted⇄ 3D version

The 3D orbital view of a statite mirror swarm tracks a single number: the whole polar cap's mass, shrinking as one lumped reservoir. This 2D companion instead resolves the cap radially — 48 independent rings, each with its own ice thickness and temperature, each balancing absorbed mirror flux against Stefan–Boltzmann radiative loss and lateral conduction to its neighbors every step. When a ring's energy balance would push its temperature past the CO₂ frost point, that ring is pinned there and the excess energy is spent on latent heat instead, sublimating real mass off that ring alone — the same Stefan-condition bookkeeping that governs any real melting or subliming surface. Watch the depletion front spread outward from wherever the mirror swarm's aim angle actually focuses the beam, and see a bare, warmed regolith ring emerge once its ice is gone while its outer neighbors are still untouched.

⚙ Under the hood

A statite orbital-mirror swarm's beam heats a planet's polar CO2 ice cap, modeled as 48 independent radial rings each solving its own absorbed flux, Stefan-Boltzmann radiative loss and lateral conduction to its neighbors; once a ring's temperature reaches the CO2 frost point it is pinned there and further energy sublimates real mass off that ring alone, so a genuine depletion front spreads outward from the beam's footprint instead of one shrinking whole-cap number.

terraformingenergy balancesublimation frontstefan problemmarsclimate engineering

2D · HTML5 Canvas 2D · 60 FPS target · runs fully client-side, no install