Related papers: Ice Giant Circulation Patterns: Implications for A…
The recent discoveries of terrestrial exoplanets and super-Earths extending over a broad range of orbital and physical parameters suggest that these planets will span a wide range of climatic regimes. Characterization of the atmospheres of…
We examine the properties of the atmospheres of extrasolar giant planets at orbital distances smaller than 0.1 AU from their stars. We show that these ``51Peg b-like'' planets are rapidly synchronized by tidal interactions, but that small…
The surface zonal winds observed in the giant planets form a complex jet pattern with alternating prograde and retrograde direction. While the main equatorial band is prograde on the gas giants, both ice giants have a pronounced retrograde…
This white paper, written in support of NASA's 2023-2032 Planetary Decadal Survey, outlines 10 major questions that focus on the origin, evolution, and current processes that shape the atmospheres of Uranus and Neptune. Prioritizing these…
The impact of the inner structure and thermal history of planets on their observable features, such as luminosity or magnetic field, crucially depends on the poorly known heat and charge transport properties of their internal layers. The…
A number of transiting exoplanets have featureless transmission spectra that might suggest the presence of clouds at high altitudes. A realistic cloud model is necessary to understand the atmospheric conditions under which such…
We investigate the character and role of convection in the atmosphere of a prototypical red giant located close to the red giant branch (RGB) tip with atmospheric parameters, Teff=3660K, log(g)=1.0, [M/H]=0.0. Differential analysis of the…
Evidence is emerging for physical links among clouds, global temperatures, the global atmospheric electrical circuit and cosmic ray ionisation. The global circuit extends throughout the atmosphere from the planetary surface to the lower…
The Global Overturning Circulation (GOC) is a key component of the climate system, transporting heat, carbon, and salt throughout the global ocean. Previous reduced-dimensional models have sought to represent this three-dimensional…
High-resolution atmospheric flow simulations of the tidally-locked extrasolar giant planet, HD 209458b, show large-scale spatio-temporal variability. This is in contrast to the simple, permanent day/night (i.e., hot/cold) picture. The…
The Ice Giants Uranus and Neptune have hydrogen-based atmospheres with several constituents that condense in their cold upper atmospheres. A small number of bright cloud systems observed in both planets are good candidates for moist…
Instabilities and turbulence extending to the smallest dynamical scales play important roles in the deposition of energy and momentum by gravity waves throughout the atmosphere. However, these dynamics and their effects have been impossible…
Observations of the circumgalactic medium (CGM) often display coincident absorption from species with widely varying ionization states, providing direct evidence for complex, multiphase interactions. Motivated by these measurements, we…
The giant planet atmospheres exhibit alternating prograde (eastward) and retrograde (westward) jets of different speeds and widths, with an equatorial jet that is prograde on Jupiter and Saturn and retrograde on Uranus and Neptune. The jets…
The meteorology of hot Jupiters has been characterized primarily with thermal measurements, but recent observations suggest the possibility of directly detecting the winds by observing the Doppler shift of spectral lines seen during…
Jupiter's dynamics shapes its cloud patterns but remains largely unknown below this natural observational barrier. Unraveling the underlying three-dimensional flows is thus a primary goal for NASA's ongoing Juno mission that was launched in…
Bathed in intense ionizing radiation, close-in gaseous planets undergo hydrodynamic atmospheric escape, which ejects the upper extent of their atmospheres into the interplanetary medium. Ultraviolet detections of escaping gas around…
Context: Distant trans-Neptunian objects are subject to planetary perturbations and galactic tides. The former decrease with the distance, while the latter increase. In the intermediate regime where they have the same order of magnitude…
Detailed tropospheric ion measurements are needed to improve understanding of the electrical microphysics affecting clouds. Additionally, atmospheric ion mobility spectra can be used to identify ion growth processes leading to condensation…
Zonal winds on Jovian planets play an important role in governing the cloud dynamics, transport of momentum, scalars, and weather patterns. Therefore, it is crucial to understand the evolution of the zonal flows and their sustainability.…