Related papers: In icy ocean worlds, size matters!
The atmospheres of the four giant planets of our Solar System share a common and well-observed characteristic: they each display patterns of planetary banding, with regions of different temperatures, composition, aerosol properties and…
We investigate the evolution of interfaces among phases of the interstellar medium with different temperature. It is found that, for some initial conditions, the dynamical effects related to conductive fronts are very important even if…
More than two dozen short-period Jupiter-mass gas giant planets have been discovered around nearby solar-type stars in recent years, several of which undergo transits, making them ideal for the detection and characterization of their…
We investigate the melt production of planetary impacts as a function of planet size ($R/R_\mathrm{Earth}$=0.1-1.5), impactor size ($L$=1-1000 km), and core size ratio ($R_\mathrm{core}/R$=0.2-0.8) using a combination of parameterized…
We use a 3D general circulation model to compare the primitive Martian hydrological cycle in "warm and wet" and "cold and icy" scenarios. In the warm and wet scenario, an anomalously high solar flux or intense greenhouse warming…
We performed numerical simulations of impact crater formation on Europa to infer the thickness and structure of its ice shell. The simulations were performed using iSALE to test both the conductive ice shell over ocean and the conductive…
Atmospheric variations over time and space boost planetary cooling, as outgoing internal flux responds to stellar radiation and opacity. Vertical mixing regulates this cooling. Our study examines how gravity waves or large-scale induced…
The variations of water density and thermal conductivity of the oceans cold region waters according to their salinity lead to suggest an hypothesis of an oscillating climate between two extreme positions: a maximum of hot temperatures and a…
The influence of rotation and magnetic fields on the physical properties of isothermal gas clouds is discussed. The presence of rotation and/or magnetic fields results in an increase of the critical cloud mass with respect to gravitational…
The transport of sea ice over the polar oceans plays an important role in climate. This transport is driven predominantly by turbulent winds, leading to stochastic motion of ice floes. Observed diffusivities and velocity distributions of…
Three-dimensional studies of convection in deep spherical shells have been used to test the hypothesis that the strong jet streams on Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus, and Neptune result from convection throughout the molecular envelopes. Due to…
Uranus and Neptune, the so-called "ice giants", represent a fascinating class of planets. They are the outermost planets in the solar system with intermediate masses/sizes, complex non-polar magnetic fields, strong atmospheric winds, and…
Ice thickness is an important variable for climate scientists and is still difficult to accurately determine from microwave radiometer measurements. There has been some success detecting the thickness of thin ice and with this in mind this…
This chapter is dedicated to the slow dynamics of the climate system, at time scales of one~thousand to one million years. We focus specifically on the phenomenon of ice ages that has characterised the slow evolution of climate over the…
Sublimation of drifting snow, which is significant for the balances of mass and energy of the polar ice sheet, is a complex physical process with intercoupling between ice crystals, wind field, temperature, and moisture. Here a…
Recent planetary data and geophysical modelling suggest that hydrothermal activity is ongoing under the ice crust of Enceladus, one of Saturn's moons. According to these models, hydrothermal flow in the porous, rocky core of the satellite…
We provide estimates of volcanism versus time for planets with Earth-like composition and masses from 0.25 to 25 times Earth, as a step toward predicting atmospheric mass on extrasolar rocky planets. Volcanism requires melting of the…
The ratio of heat and salt flux is employed in ice-ocean models to represent ice-ocean interactions. In this study, this flux ratio is determined from direct numerical simulations of free convection beneath a melting, horizontal, smooth…
Arctic icebergs, unconstrained sea ice floes, oil slicks, mangrove drifters, lost cargo containers, and other flotsam are known to move at 2-4% of the prevailing wind velocity relative to the water, despite vast differences in the material…
Next-generation space telescopes will observe the atmospheres of rocky planets orbiting nearby M-dwarfs. Understanding these observations will require well-developed theory in addition to numerical simulations. Here we present theoretical…