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Spatially resolved observations of molecular line emission have the potentialto yield unique constraints on the nature of turbulence within protoplanetarydisks. Using a combination of local non-ideal magnetohydrodynamic simulationsand radiative transfer calculations, tailored to properties of the disk aroundHD 163296, we assess the ability of ALMA to detect turbulence driven by themagnetorotational instability (MRI). Our local simulations show that the MRIproduces small-scale turbulent velocity fluctuations that increase in strengthwith height above the mid-plane. For a set of simulations at different diskradii, we fit a Maxell-Boltzmann distribution to the turbulent velocity andconstruct a turbulent broadening parameter as a function of radius and height.We input this broadening into radiative transfer calculations to quantifyobservational signatures of MRI-driven disk turbulence. We find that the ratioof the peak line flux to the flux at line center is a robust diagnostic ofturbulence that is only mildly degenerate with systematic uncertainties in disktemperature. For the CO(3-2) line, which we expect to probe the mostmagnetically active slice of the disk column, variations in the predictedpeak-to-trough ratio between our most and least turbulent models span a rangeof approximately 15%. Additional independent constraints can be derived fromthe morphology of spatially resolved line profiles, and we estimate theresolution required to detect turbulence on different spatial scales. Wediscuss the role of lower optical depth molecular tracers, which trace regionscloser to the disk mid-plane where velocities in MRI-driven models aresystematically lower.

Signatures of MRI-Driven Turbulence in Protoplanetary Disks: Predictions for ALMA Observations