CO2 Ocean Bistability on Terrestrial Exoplanets

Cycling of carbon dioxide between the atmosphere and interior of rocky planets can stabilize global climate and enable planetary surface temperatures above freezing over geologic time. However, variations in global carbon budget and unstable feedback cycles between planetary sub‐systems may destabilize the climate of rocky exoplanets toward regimes unknown in the Solar System. Here, we perform clear‐sky atmospheric radiative transfer and surface weathering simulations to probe the stability of climate equilibria for rocky, ocean‐bearing exoplanets at instellations relevant for planetary systems in the outer regions of the circumstellar habitable zone. Our simulations suggest that planets orbiting G‐ and F‐type stars (but not M‐type stars) may display bistability between an Earth‐like climate state with efficient carbon sequestration and an alternative stable climate equilibrium where CO(2) condenses at the surface and forms a blanket of either clathrate hydrate or liquid CO(2). At increasing instellation and with ineffective weathering, the latter state oscillates between cool, surface CO(2)‐condensing and hot, non‐condensing climates. CO(2) bistable climates may emerge early in planetary history and remain stable for billions of years. The carbon dioxide‐condensing climates follow an opposite trend in pCO(2) versus instellation compared to the weathering‐stabilized planet population, suggesting the possibility of observational discrimination between these distinct climate categories

Water loss from terrestrial planets with CO2CO_2-rich atmospheres

Water photolysis and hydrogen loss from the upper atmospheres of terrestrial planets is of fundamental importance to climate evolution but remains poorly understood in general. Here we present a range of calculations we performed to study the dependence of water loss rates from terrestrial planets on a range of atmospheric and external parameters. We show that CO2 can only cause significant water loss by increasing surface temperatures over a narrow range of conditions, with cooling of the middle and upper atmosphere acting as a bottleneck on escape in other circumstances. Around G-stars, efficient loss only occurs on planets with intermediate CO2 atmospheric partial pressures (0.1-1 bar) that receive a net flux close to the critical runaway greenhouse limit. Because G-star total luminosity increases with time but X-ray and ultraviolet/ultravoilet luminosity decreases, this places strong limits on water loss for planets like Earth. In contrast, for a CO2-rich early Venus, diffusion limits on water loss are only important if clouds caused strong cooling, implying that scenarios where the planet never had surface liquid water are indeed plausible. Around M-stars, water loss is primarily a function of orbital distance, with planets that absorb less flux than ~270 W m–2 (global mean) unlikely to lose more than one Earth ocean of H2O over their lifetimes unless they lose all their atmospheric N2/CO2 early on. Because of the variability of H2O delivery during accretion, our results suggest that many "Earth-like" exoplanets in the habitable zone may have ocean-covered surfaces, stable CO2/H2O-rich atmospheres, and high mean surface temperatures.Engineering and Applied Science

Cluster Dynamics of Planetary Waves

The dynamics of nonlinear atmospheric planetary waves is determined by a small number of independent wave clusters consisting of a few connected resonant triads. We classified the different types of connections between neighboring triads that determine the general dynamics of a cluster. Each connection type corresponds to substantially different scenarios of energy flux among the modes. The general approach can be applied directly to various mesoscopic systems with 3-mode interactions, encountered in hydrodynamics, astronomy, plasma physics, chemistry, medicine, etc.Comment: 6 pages, 3 figs, EPL, publishe

Turbulent spectrum of the Earth's ozone field

The Total Ozone Mapping Spectrometer (TOMS) database is subjected to an analysis in terms of the Karhunen-Loeve (KL) empirical eigenfunctions. The concentration variance spectrum is transformed into a wavenumber spectrum, $E_c(k)$. In terms of wavenumber $E_c(k)$ is shown to be $O(k^{-2/3})$ in the inverse cascade regime, $O(k^{-2})$ in the enstrophy cascade regime with the spectral {\it knee} at the wavenumber of barotropic instability.The spectrum is related to known geophysical phenomena and shown to be consistent with physical dimensional reasoning for the problem. The appropriate Reynolds number for the phenomena is $Re\approx 10^{10}$.Comment: RevTeX file, 4 pages, 4 postscript figures available upon request from Richard Everson <[email protected]

Predictive use of the Maximum Entropy Production principle for Past and Present Climates

In this paper, we show how the MEP hypothesis may be used to build simple climate models without representing explicitly the energy transport by the atmosphere. The purpose is twofold. First, we assess the performance of the MEP hypothesis by comparing a simple model with minimal input data to a complex, state-of-the-art General Circulation Model. Next, we show how to improve the realism of MEP climate models by including climate feedbacks, focusing on the case of the water-vapour feedback. We also discuss the dependence of the entropy production rate and predicted surface temperature on the resolution of the model

Precision Measurements of Stretching and Compression in Fluid Mixing

The mixing of an impurity into a flowing fluid is an important process in many areas of science, including geophysical processes, chemical reactors, and microfluidic devices. In some cases, for example periodic flows, the concepts of nonlinear dynamics provide a deep theoretical basis for understanding mixing. Unfortunately, the building blocks of this theory, i.e. the fixed points and invariant manifolds of the associated Poincare map, have remained inaccessible to direct experimental study, thus limiting the insight that could be obtained. Using precision measurements of tracer particle trajectories in a two-dimensional fluid flow producing chaotic mixing, we directly measure the time-dependent stretching and compression fields. These quantities, previously available only numerically, attain local maxima along lines coinciding with the stable and unstable manifolds, thus revealing the dynamical structures that control mixing. Contours or level sets of a passive impurity field are found to be aligned parallel to the lines of large compression (unstable manifolds) at each instant. This connection appears to persist as the onset of turbulence is approached.Comment: 5 pages, 5 figure

Polygonal N-vortex arrays: A Stuart model

Published versio