English

Exploring Climate with Obliquity in a Variable-eccentricity Earth-like World

Earth and Planetary Astrophysics 2023-11-08 v1

Abstract

Exploring planetary systems similar to our solar system can provide a means to explore a large range of possibly temperate climates on Earth-like worlds. Rather than run hundreds of simulations with different eccentricities at fixed obliquities, our variable-eccentricity approach provides a means to cover an incredibly large parameter space. Herein Jupiter's orbital radius is moved substantially inward in two different scenarios, causing a forcing on Earth's eccentricity. In one case, the eccentricity of Earth varies from 0 to 0.27 over ~7000 yr for three different fixed obliquities (0{\deg}, 23{\deg}, and 45{\deg}). In another case, the eccentricity varies from 0 to 0.53 over ~9400 yr in a single case with zero obliquity. In all cases, we find that the climate remains stable, but regional habitability changes through time in unique ways. At the same time, the moist greenhouse state is approached but only when at the highest eccentricities.

Keywords

Cite

@article{arxiv.2311.04167,
  title  = {Exploring Climate with Obliquity in a Variable-eccentricity Earth-like World},
  author = {M. J. Way and Nikolaos Georgakarakos and Thomas L. Clune},
  journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:2311.04167},
  year   = {2023}
}

Comments

10 pages, 11 Figures. Data/scripts used to generate figures & ROCKE-3D boundary condition files can be downloaded from doi:10.5281/zenodo.8398270

R2 v1 2026-06-28T13:14:18.635Z