5,254 research outputs found
Atmospheric Circulation of Exoplanets
We survey the basic principles of atmospheric dynamics relevant to explaining
existing and future observations of exoplanets, both gas giant and terrestrial.
Given the paucity of data on exoplanet atmospheres, our approach is to
emphasize fundamental principles and insights gained from Solar-System studies
that are likely to be generalizable to exoplanets. We begin by presenting the
hierarchy of basic equations used in atmospheric dynamics, including the
Navier-Stokes, primitive, shallow-water, and two-dimensional nondivergent
models. We then survey key concepts in atmospheric dynamics, including the
importance of planetary rotation, the concept of balance, and scaling arguments
to show how turbulent interactions generally produce large-scale east-west
banding on rotating planets. We next turn to issues specific to giant planets,
including their expected interior and atmospheric thermal structures, the
implications for their wind patterns, and mechanisms to pump their east-west
jets. Hot Jupiter atmospheric dynamics are given particular attention, as these
close-in planets have been the subject of most of the concrete developments in
the study of exoplanetary atmospheres. We then turn to the basic elements of
circulation on terrestrial planets as inferred from Solar-System studies,
including Hadley cells, jet streams, processes that govern the large-scale
horizontal temperature contrasts, and climate, and we discuss how these
insights may apply to terrestrial exoplanets. Although exoplanets surely
possess a greater diversity of circulation regimes than seen on the planets in
our Solar System, our guiding philosophy is that the multi-decade study of
Solar-System planets reviewed here provides a foundation upon which our
understanding of more exotic exoplanetary meteorology must build.Comment: In EXOPLANETS, edited by S. Seager, to be published in the Spring of
2010 in the Space Science Series of the University of Arizona Press (Tucson,
AZ) (refereed; accepted for publication
On Signatures of Atmospheric Features in Thermal Phase Curves of Hot Jupiters
Turbulence is ubiquitous in Solar System planetary atmospheres. In hot
Jupiter atmospheres, the combination of moderately slow rotation and thick
pressure scale height may result in dynamical weather structures with unusually
large, planetary-size scales. Using equivalent-barotropic, turbulent
circulation models, we illustrate how such structures can generate a variety of
features in the thermal phase curves of hot Jupiters, including phase shifts
and deviations from periodicity. Such features may have been spotted in the
recent infrared phase curve of HD 189733b. Despite inherent difficulties with
the interpretation of disk-integrated quantities, phase curves promise to offer
unique constraints on the nature of the circulation regime present on hot
Jupiters.Comment: 22 pages, 6 figures, 1 table, accepted for publication in Ap
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The Emergence of Jets and Vortices in Freely Evolving, ShallowâWater Turbulence on a Sphere
Results from a series of simulations of unforced turbulence evolving within a shallow layer of fluid on a rotating sphere are presented. Simulations show that the turbulent evolution in the spherical domain is strongly dependent on numerical and physical conditions. The independent effects of (1) (hyper)dissipation and initial spectrum, (2) rotation rate, and (3) Rossby deformation radius are carefully isolated and studied in detail. In the nondivergent and nonrotating case, an initially turbulent flow evolves into a vorticityquadrupole at long times, a direct consequence of angular momentumconservation. In the presence of sufficiently strong rotation, the nondivergent longâtime behavior yields a field dominated by polar vorticesâas previously reported by Yoden and Yamada. In contrast, the case with a finite deformation radius (i.e., the full spherical shallowâwater system) spontaneously evolves toward a banded configuration, the number of bands increasing with the rotation rate. A direct application of this shallowâwater model to the Jovian atmosphere is discussed. Using standard values for the planetary radius and rotation, we show how the initially turbulent flow selfâorganizes into a potential vorticity field containing zonal structures, where regions of steep potential vorticity gradients (jets) separate relatively homogenized bands. Moreover, Jovian parameter values in our simulations lead to a strong vorticity asymmetry, favoring anticyclonic vorticesâin further agreement with observations
Changing Face of the Extrasolar Giant Planet, HD 209458b
High-resolution atmospheric flow simulations of the tidally-locked extrasolar
giant planet, HD 209458b, show large-scale spatio-temporal variability. This is
in contrast to the simple, permanent day/night (i.e., hot/cold) picture. The
planet's global circulation is characterized by a polar vortex in motion around
each pole and a banded structure corresponding to ~3 broad zonal (east-west)
jets. For very strong jets, the circulation-induced temperature difference
between moving hot and cold regions can reach up to ~1000 K, suggesting that
atmospheric variability could be observed in the planet's spectral and
photometric signatures.Comment: 6 pages, 1 ps figure, 2 low-res color figures (JPEG). Figure 3
updated. Contact authors for hi-res versions of color figures. Accepted for
publication in ApJ
Effects of Initial Flow on Close-In Planet Atmospheric Circulation
We use a general circulation model to study the three-dimensional (3-D) flow
and temperature distributions of atmospheres on tidally synchronized extrasolar
planets. In this work, we focus on the sensitivity of the evolution to the
initial flow state, which has not received much attention in 3-D modeling
studies. We find that different initial states lead to markedly different
distributions-even under the application of strong forcing (large day-night
temperature difference with a short "thermal drag time") that may be
representative of close-in planets. This is in contrast with the results or
assumptions of many published studies. In general, coherent jets and vortices
(and their associated temperature distributions) characterize the flow, and
they evolve differently in time, depending on the initial condition. If the
coherent structures reach a quasi- stationary state, their spatial locations
still vary. The result underlines the fact that circulation models are
currently unsuitable for making quantitative predictions (e.g., location and
size of a "hot spot") without better constrained, and well posed, initial
conditions.Comment: Accepted for publication in the Astrophysical Journal; 23 pages, 9
figures
"Weather" Variability Of Close-in Extrasolar Giant Planets
Shallow-water numerical simulations show that the atmospheric circulation of
the close-in extrasolar giant planet (EGP) HD 209458b is characterized by
moving circumpolar vortices and few bands/jets (in contrast with ~10 bands/jets
and absence of polar vortices on cloud-top Jupiter and Saturn). The large
spatial scales of moving circulation structures on HD 209458b may generate
detectable variability of the planet's atmospheric signatures. In this Letter,
we generalize these results to other close-in EGPs, by noting that
shallow-water dynamics is essentially specified by the values of the Rossby
(Ro) and Burger (Bu) dimensionless numbers. The range of likely values of Ro (~
0.01 - 10) and Bu (~ 1 - 200) for the atmospheric flow of known close-in EGPs
indicates that their circulation should be qualitatively similar to that of HD
209458b. This results mostly from the slow rotation of these
tidally-synchronized planets.Comment: 6 pages, 1 table, 1 figure. Accepted for publication in ApJ
Hot Jupiter Variability in Eclipse Depth
Physical conditions in the atmospheres of tidally-locked, slowly-rotating hot
Jupiters correspond to dynamical circulation regimes with Rhines scales and
Rossby deformation radii comparable to the planetary radii. Consequently, the
large spatial scales of moving atmospheric structures could generate
significant photospheric variability. Here, we estimate the level of thermal
infrared variability expected in successive secondary eclipse depths, according
to hot Jupiter turbulent ``shallow-layer'' models. The variability, at the few
percent level or more in models with strong enough winds, is within the reach
of Spitzer measurements. Eclipse depth variability is thus a valuable tool to
constrain the circulation regime and global wind speeds in hot Jupiter
atmospheres.Comment: 13 pages, 3 figures, 2 tables, accepted for publication in ApJ
Letter
Toward Eclipse Mapping of Hot Jupiters
Recent Spitzer infrared measurements of hot Jupiter eclipses suggest that
eclipse mapping techniques could be used to spatially resolve the day-side
photospheric emission of these planets using partial occultations. As a first
step in this direction, we simulate ingress/egress lightcurves for the three
brightest known eclipsing hot Jupiters and evaluate the degree to which
parameterized photospheric emission models can be distinguished from each other
with repeated, noisy eclipse measurements. We find that the photometric
accuracy of Spitzer is insufficient to use this tool effectively. On the other
hand, the level of photospheric details that could be probed with a few JWST
eclipse measurements could greatly inform hot Jupiter atmospheric modeling
efforts. A JWST program focused on non-parametric eclipse map inversions for
hot Jupiters should be actively considered.Comment: 32 pages, 6 figures, 3 tables, accepted for publication in Ap
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