This is a white paper in response to the National Academy of Sciences "Exoplanet Science Strategy" call. We summarize recent advances in theoretical habitability studies and argue that such studies will remain important for guiding and interpreting observations. Interactions between 1-D and 3-D climate modelers will be necessary to resolve recent discrepancies in model results and improve habitability studies. Observational capabilities will also need improvement. Although basic observations can be performed with present capabilities, technological advances will be necessary to improve climate models to the level needed for planetary habitability studies.
@article{arxiv.1803.00215,
title = {The continued importance of habitability studies},
author = {Ramses M. Ramirez and Dorian S. Abbot and Vladimir Airapetian and Yuka Fujii and Keiko Hamano and Amit Levi and Tyler D. Robinson and Laura Schaefer and Eric T. Wolf and Robin D. Wordsworth},
journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:1803.00215},
year = {2019}
}
Comments
This is a white paper submitted to the National Academies 2018 "Exoplanet Science Strategy" call(6 pages total, including cover page). Corrected references section in this version. http://sites.nationalacademies.org/SSB/CurrentProjects/SSB_180659