The investigation of planets around other stars began with the study of gas
giants, but is now extending to the discovery and characterization of
super-Earths and terrestrial planets. Motivated by this observational tide, we
survey the basic dynamical principles governing the atmospheric circulation of
terrestrial exoplanets, and discuss the interaction of their circulation with
the hydrological cycle and global-scale climate feedbacks. Terrestrial
exoplanets occupy a wide range of physical and dynamical conditions, only a
small fraction of which have yet been explored in detail. Our approach is to
lay out the fundamental dynamical principles governing the atmospheric
circulation on terrestrial planets--broadly defined--and show how they can
provide a foundation for understanding the atmospheric behavior of these
worlds. We first survey basic atmospheric dynamics, including the role of
geostrophy, baroclinic instabilities, and jets in the strongly rotating regime
(the "extratropics") and the role of the Hadley circulation, wave adjustment of
the thermal structure, and the tendency toward equatorial superrotation in the
slowly rotating regime (the "tropics"). We then survey key elements of the
hydrological cycle, including the factors that control precipitation, humidity,
and cloudiness. Next, we summarize key mechanisms by which the circulation
affects the global-mean climate, and hence planetary habitability. In
particular, we discuss the runaway greenhouse, transitions to snowball states,
atmospheric collapse, and the links between atmospheric circulation and CO2
weathering rates. We finish by summarizing the key questions and challenges for
this emerging field in the future.Comment: Invited review, in press for the Arizona Space Science Series book
"Comparative Climatology of Terrestrial Planets" (S. Mackwell, M. Bullock,
and J. Harder, editors). 56 pages, 26 figure