16,977 research outputs found
3D mixing in hot Jupiter atmospheres. I. application to the day/night cold trap in HD 209458b
Hot Jupiters exhibit atmospheric temperatures ranging from hundreds to
thousands of Kelvin. Because of their large day-night temperature differences,
condensable species that are stable in the gas phase on the dayside, such as
TiO and silicates, may condense and gravitationally settle on the nightside.
Atmospheric circulation may counterbalance this tendency to gravitationally
settle. This three dimensional (3D) mixing of chemical species has not
previously been studied for hot Jupiters, yet it is crucial to assess the
existence and distribution of TiO and silicates in the atmospheres of these
planets. We perform 3D global circulation models of HD209458b including passive
tracers that advect with the 3D flow, including a source/sink on the nightside
to represent condensation and gravitational settling of haze particles. We show
that global advection patterns produce strong vertical mixing that can keep
condensable species lofted as long as they are trapped in particles of sizes of
a few microns or less on the night side. We show that vertical mixing results
not from small-scale convection but from the large-scale circulation driven by
the day-night heating contrast. Although this vertical mixing is not diffusive
in any rigorous sense, a comparison of our results with idealized diffusion
models allows a rough estimate of the vertical diffusion coefficient.
Kzz=5x10**4/Sqrt(Pbar) m2/s can be used in 1D models of HD 209458b. Moreover,
our models exhibit strong spatial and temporal variability in the tracer
concentration that could result in observable variations during transit or
secondary eclipse measurements. Finally, we apply our model to the case of TiO
in HD209458b and show that the day-night cold trap would deplete TiO if it
condenses into particles bigger than a few microns on the planet's night side,
making it unable to create the observed stratosphere of the planet.Comment: Accepted in A&A in August 2013
http://dx.doi.org/10.1051/0004-6361/20132113
Modelling the local and global cloud formation on HD 189733b
Context. Observations suggest that exoplanets such as HD 189733b form clouds
in their atmospheres which have a strong feedback onto their thermodynamical
and chemical structure, and overall appearance. Aims. Inspired by mineral cloud
modelling efforts for Brown Dwarf atmospheres, we present the first spatially
varying kinetic cloud model structures for HD 189733b. Methods. We apply a
2-model approach using results from a 3D global radiation-hydrodynamic
simulation of the atmosphere as input for a detailed, kinetic cloud formation
model. Sampling the 3D global atmosphere structure with 1D trajectories allows
us to model the spatially varying cloud structure on HD 189733b. The resulting
cloud properties enable the calculation of the scattering and absorption
properties of the clouds. Results. We present local and global cloud structure
and property maps for HD 189733b. The calculated cloud properties show
variations in composition, size and number density of cloud particles which are
strongest between the dayside and nightside. Cloud particles are mainly
composed of a mix of materials with silicates being the main component. Cloud
properties, and hence the local gas composition, change dramatically where
temperature inversions occur locally. The cloud opacity is dominated by
absorption in the upper atmosphere and scattering at higher pressures in the
model. The calculated 8{\mu}m single scattering Albedo of the cloud particles
are consistent with Spitzer bright regions. The cloud particles scattering
properties suggest that they would sparkle/reflect a midnight blue colour at
optical wavelengths.Comment: Accepted for publication (A&A) - 21/05/2015 (Low Resolution Maps
Large-scale solar wind flow around Saturn's nonaxisymmetric magnetosphere
The interaction between the solar wind and a magnetosphere is fundamental to
the dynamics of a planetary system. Here, we address fundamental questions on
the large-scale magnetosheath flow around Saturn using a 3D magnetohydrodynamic
(MHD) simulation. We find Saturn's polar-flattened magnetosphere to channel
~20% more flow over the poles than around the flanks at the terminator.
Further, we decompose the MHD forces responsible for accelerating the
magnetosheath plasma to find the plasma pressure gradient as the dominant
driver. This is by virtue of a high-beta magnetosheath, and in turn, the
high-MA bow shock. Together with long-term magnetosheath data by the Cassini
spacecraft, we present evidence of how nonaxisymmetry substantially alters the
conditions further downstream at the magnetopause, crucial for understanding
solar wind-magnetosphere interactions such as reconnection and shear
flow-driven instabilities. We anticipate our results to provide a more accurate
insight into the global conditions upstream of Saturn and the outer planets.Comment: Accepted for publication in Journal of Geophysical Journal: Space
Physic
Radiative Hydrodynamic Simulations of HD209458b: Temporal Variability
We present a new approach for simulating the atmospheric dynamics of the
close-in giant planet HD209458b that allows for the decoupling of radiative and
thermal energies, direct stellar heating of the interior, and the solution of
the full 3D Navier Stokes equations. Simulations reveal two distinct
temperature inversions (increasing temperature with decreasing pressure) at the
sub-stellar point due to the combined effects of opacity and dynamical flow
structure and exhibit instabilities leading to changing velocities and
temperatures on the nightside for a range of viscosities. Imposed on the
quasi-static background, temperature variations of up to 15% are seen near the
terminators and the location of the coldest spot is seen to vary by more than
20 degrees, occasionally appearing west of the anti-solar point. Our new
approach introduces four major improvements to our previous methods including
simultaneously solving both the thermal energy and radiative equations in both
the optical and infrared, incorporating updated opacities, including a more
accurate treatment of stellar energy deposition that incorporates the opacity
relevant for higher energy stellar photons, and the addition of explicit
turbulent viscosity.Comment: Accepted for publication in Ap
Laminar Cortical Dynamics of Visual Form and Motion Interactions During Coherent Object Motion Perception
How do visual form and motion processes cooperate to compute object motion when each process separately is insufficient? A 3D FORMOTION model specifies how 3D boundary representations, which separate figures from backgrounds within cortical area V2, capture motion signals at the appropriate depths in MT; how motion signals in MT disambiguate boundaries in V2 via MT-to-Vl-to-V2 feedback; how sparse feature tracking signals are amplified; and how a spatially anisotropic motion grouping process propagates across perceptual space via MT-MST feedback to integrate feature-tracking and ambiguous motion signals to determine a global object motion percept. Simulated data include: the degree of motion coherence of rotating shapes observed through apertures, the coherent vs. element motion percepts separated in depth during the chopsticks illusion, and the rigid vs. non-rigid appearance of rotating ellipses.Air Force Office of Scientific Research (F49620-01-1-0397); National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency (NMA201-01-1-2016); National Science Foundation (BCS-02-35398, SBE-0354378); Office of Naval Research (N00014-95-1-0409, N00014-01-1-0624
Precise Model for Small-Body Thermal Radiation Pressure Acting on Spacecraft
A precise representation of small-body surface thermal radiation pressure effects acting on orbiting spacecraft is discussed. The proposed framework takes advantage of a general Fourier series expansion to compute small-body surface thermal radiation pressure. Fourier series expansion has been used before for the precise representation of solar radiation pressure effects on spacecraft orbiting small bodies. This framework takes into account the geometric relationship of orbiting spacecraft with the small-body surface, surface thermal parameters of the small body, and the shape and surface properties of spacecraft allowing for the computation of thermal radiation pressure, which may also be used for the generation of precise orbit determination solutions. After presenting the general model, an example application of the model for the OSIRIS-REx spacecraft in orbit about Asteroid (101955) Bennu is provided. Simulation studies were used to evaluate the effect of mismodeling of thermal radiation pressure on the spacecraft and study the use of the proposed method for generating precise orbit determination solutions
The Influence of Non-Uniform Cloud Cover on Transit Transmission Spectra
We model the impact of non-uniform cloud cover on transit transmission
spectra. Patchy clouds exist in nearly every solar system atmosphere, brown
dwarfs, and transiting exoplanets. Our major findings suggest that fractional
cloud coverage can exactly mimic high mean molecular weight atmospheres and
vice-versa over certain wavelength regions, in particular, over the Hubble
Space Telescope (HST) Wide Field Camera 3 (WFC3) bandpass (1.1-1.7 m). We
also find that patchy cloud coverage exhibits a signature that is different
from uniform global clouds. Furthermore, we explain analytically why the
"patchy cloud-high mean molecular weight" degeneracy exists. We also explore
the degeneracy of non-uniform cloud coverage in atmospheric retrievals on both
synthetic and real planets. We find from retrievals on a synthetic solar
composition hot Jupiter with patchy clouds and a cloud free high mean molecular
weight warm Neptune, that both cloud free high mean molecular weight
atmospheres and partially cloudy atmospheres can explain the data equally well.
Another key find is that the HST WFC3 transit transmission spectra of two well
observed objects, the hot Jupiter HD189733b and the warm Neptune HAT-P-11b, can
be explained well by solar composition atmospheres with patchy clouds without
the need to invoke high mean molecular weight or global clouds. The degeneracy
between high molecular weight and solar composition partially cloudy
atmospheres can be broken by observing the molecular Rayleigh scattering
differences between the two. Furthermore, the signature of partially cloudy
limbs also appears as a 100 ppm residual in the ingress and egress of the
transit light curves, provided the transit timing is known to seconds.Comment: Accepted to ApJ Feb. 8, 201
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