12 research outputs found
Radiative Transfer for Exoplanet Atmospheres
Remote sensing of the atmospheres of distant worlds motivates a firm
understanding of radiative transfer. In this review, we provide a pedagogical
cookbook that describes the principal ingredients needed to perform a radiative
transfer calculation and predict the spectrum of an exoplanet atmosphere,
including solving the radiative transfer equation, calculating opacities (and
chemistry), iterating for radiative equilibrium (or not), and adapting the
output of the calculations to the astronomical observations. A review of the
state of the art is performed, focusing on selected milestone papers.
Outstanding issues, including the need to understand aerosols or clouds and
elucidating the assumptions and caveats behind inversion methods, are
discussed. A checklist is provided to assist referees/reviewers in their
scrutiny of works involving radiative transfer. A table summarizing the
methodology employed by past studies is provided.Comment: 7 pages, no figures, 1 table. Filled in missing information in
references, main text unchange
Paleoclimate Implications for Human-Made Climate Change
Paleoclimate data help us assess climate sensitivity and potential human-made
climate effects. We conclude that Earth in the warmest interglacial periods of
the past million years was less than 1{\deg}C warmer than in the Holocene.
Polar warmth in these interglacials and in the Pliocene does not imply that a
substantial cushion remains between today's climate and dangerous warming, but
rather that Earth is poised to experience strong amplifying polar feedbacks in
response to moderate global warming. Thus goals to limit human-made warming to
2{\deg}C are not sufficient - they are prescriptions for disaster. Ice sheet
disintegration is nonlinear, spurred by amplifying feedbacks. We suggest that
ice sheet mass loss, if warming continues unabated, will be characterized
better by a doubling time for mass loss rate than by a linear trend. Satellite
gravity data, though too brief to be conclusive, are consistent with a doubling
time of 10 years or less, implying the possibility of multi-meter sea level
rise this century. Observed accelerating ice sheet mass loss supports our
conclusion that Earth's temperature now exceeds the mean Holocene value. Rapid
reduction of fossil fuel emissions is required for humanity to succeed in
preserving a planet resembling the one on which civilization developed.Comment: 32 pages, 9 figures; final version accepted for publication in
"Climate Change at the Eve of the Second Decade of the Century: Inferences
from Paleoclimate and Regional Aspects: Proceedings of Milutin Milankovitch
130th Anniversary Symposium" (eds. Berger, Mesinger and Sijaci
Concentrations of Atmospheric greenhouse gases, aerosols and their comparison with COSMIC
Metabolic and energetic aspects of the growth of Bacillus stearothermophilus in glucose-limited and glucose-sufficient chemostat culture
Detection of hydrogen sulfide above the clouds in Uranus’s atmosphere
Visible-to-near-infrared observations indicate that the cloud top of the main cloud deck on Uranus lies at a pressure level of between 1.2 bar and 3 bar. However, its composition has never been unambiguously identified, although it is widely assumed to be composed primarily of either ammonia or hydrogen sulfide (H2S) ice. Here, we present evidence of a clear detection of gaseous H2S above this cloud deck in the wavelength region 1.57–1.59 μm with a mole fraction of 0.4–0.8 ppm at the cloud top. Its detection constrains the deep bulk sulfur/nitrogen abundance to exceed unity (>4.4–5.0 times the solar value) in Uranus’s bulk atmosphere, and places a lower limit on the mole fraction of H2S below the observed cloud of ( 1.0 - 2.5 ) ×1 0 - 5 . The detection of gaseous H2S at these pressure levels adds to the weight of evidence that the principal constituent of 1.2–3-bar cloud is likely to be H2S ice