Related papers: What is the planetary boundary layer?
Disk accretion onto stars leads to the formation of a Boundary Layer (BL) near the stellar surface where the disk makes contact with the star. Albeit a large fraction of the total luminosity of the system originates from this tiny layer…
The Earth has warmed in the last century with the most rapid warming occurring near the surface in the arctic. This enhanced surface warming in the Arctic is partly because the extra heat is trapped in a thin layer of air near the surface…
In this review/tutorial we explore planetary nebulae as a stage in the evolution of low-to-intermediate-mass stars, as major contributors to the mass and chemical enrichment of the interstellar medium, and as astrophysical laboratories. We…
Planetary atmospheres, and models of them, are discussed from the viewpoint of condensed matter physics. Atmospheres are a form of condensed matter, and many interesting phenomena of condensed matter systems are realized by them. The…
Context. Mass transfer due to Roche lobe overflow leads to the formation of an accretion disk around a weakly magnetized white dwarf (WD) in cataclysmic variables. At the inner edge of the disk, the gas comes upon the surface of the WD and…
This chapter provides an overview of the basic concepts foundational to atmospheric physics and chemistry. We discuss the retention of atmospheres against thermal evaporation and the global energy balance of planets. We present simple…
We propose a quantitative concept for the lower planetary boundary, requiring that a planet must keep its atmosphere in vacuum. The solution-set framework of Pecnik and Wuchterl (2005) enabled a clear and quantitative criterion for the…
The characteristics of irradiated solar system planetary atmospheres have been studied for decades, consequently modern planetary science benefits from an exhaustive body of ground- and space-based data. The study of extrasolar planetary…
Understanding Titan's planetary boundary layer (PBL)-the lowest region of the atmosphere influenced by surface conditions-remains challenging due to Titan's thick atmosphere and limited observations. Previous modeling studies have produced…
A description is given of the samples of Low Surface Brightness galaxies (LSBs) used for comparison with models of their chemical and spectro-photometric evolution (Boissier et al., this Volume). These samples show the large variation and…
The Martian Planetary Boundary Layer [PBL] is a crucial component of the Martian climate system. Global Climate Models [GCMs] and Mesoscale Models [MMs] lack the resolution to predict PBL mixing which is therefore parameterized. Here we…
Detailed characterization of an extrasolar planet's atmosphere provides the best hope for distinguishing the makeup of its outer layers, and the only hope for understanding the interplay between initial composition, chemistry, dynamics &…
We point out some advantages of making observations of extrasolar planets in linearly polarized (LP) light. Older cool stars have quite low levels (~ 10^-4 to 10^-5) of fractional LP, while extrasolar planets can have relatively high…
What is the Broad Line Region (BLR) made of? What determines its location? Why is it sometimes missing? What controls its properties? Some recent results and new approaches which may shed light on these issues are briefly described.
We study the impact of multi-layered clouds (low-level water and high-level ice clouds) on the thermal emission spectra of Earth-like planets orbiting different types of stars. Clouds have an important influence on such planetary emission…
Coronal hole boundaries are the interfaces between closed and open magnetic field regions in the solar atmosphere. Many fundamental processes take place at these regions, including magnetic reconnection that is responsible for solar wind…
Turbulent boundary layers exhibit a universal structure which nevertheless is rather complex, being composed of a viscous sub-layer, a buffer zone, and a turbulent log-law region. In this letter we present a simple analytic model of…
Atmospheric regions below a refractive boundary are hidden in limb observations. Refraction thus creates a gray continuum in the planet's transmission spectrum which can hide spectral features associated with sources of atmospheric opacity.…
Partially ionized plasmas are found across the Universe in many different astrophysical environments. They constitute an essential ingredient of the solar atmosphere, molecular clouds, planetary ionospheres and protoplanetary disks, among…
I review the major open science questions in exoplanet atmospheres. These are mainly focused in the areas of understanding atmospheric physics, the atmosphere as a window into other realms of planetary physics, and the atmosphere is a…