THREE-DIMENSIONAL ATMOSPHERIC CIRCULATION OF WARM AND HOT JUPITERS: EFFECTS OF ORBITAL DISTANCE, ROTATION PERIOD, AND NONSYNCHRONOUS ROTATION
Efforts to characterize extrasolar giant planet (EGP) atmospheres have so far emphasized planets within 0.05 AU of their stars. Despite this focus, known EGPs populate a continuum of orbital separations from canonical hot Jupiter values (0.03–0.05 AU) out to 1 AU and beyond. Unlike typical hot Jupit...
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| Format: | Article |
| Language: | en_US |
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Institute of Physics/American Astronomical Society
2015
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| Online Access: | http://hdl.handle.net/1721.1/96708 |
| _version_ | 1826189647330410496 |
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| author | Showman, Adam P. Lewis, Nikole Fortney, Jonathan J. |
| author2 | Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Department of Earth, Atmospheric, and Planetary Sciences |
| author_facet | Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Department of Earth, Atmospheric, and Planetary Sciences Showman, Adam P. Lewis, Nikole Fortney, Jonathan J. |
| author_sort | Showman, Adam P. |
| collection | MIT |
| description | Efforts to characterize extrasolar giant planet (EGP) atmospheres have so far emphasized planets within 0.05 AU of their stars. Despite this focus, known EGPs populate a continuum of orbital separations from canonical hot Jupiter values (0.03–0.05 AU) out to 1 AU and beyond. Unlike typical hot Jupiters, these more distant EGPs will not generally be synchronously rotating. In anticipation of observations of this population, we here present three-dimensional atmospheric circulation models exploring the dynamics that emerge over a broad range of rotation rates and incident stellar fluxes appropriate for warm and hot Jupiters. We find that the circulation resides in one of two basic regimes. On typical hot Jupiters, the strong day–night heating contrast leads to a broad, fast superrotating (eastward) equatorial jet and large day–night temperature differences. At faster rotation rates and lower incident fluxes, however, the day–night heating gradient becomes less important, and baroclinic instabilities emerge as a dominant player, leading to eastward jets in the midlatitudes, minimal temperature variations in longitude, and, often, weak winds at the equator. Our most rapidly rotating and least irradiated models exhibit similarities to Jupiter and Saturn, illuminating the dynamical continuum between hot Jupiters and the weakly irradiated giant planets of our own solar system. We present infrared (IR) light curves and spectra of these models, which depend significantly on incident flux and rotation rate. This provides a way to identify the regime transition in future observations. In some cases, IR light curves can provide constraints on the rotation rate of nonsynchronously rotating planets. |
| first_indexed | 2024-09-23T08:18:55Z |
| format | Article |
| id | mit-1721.1/96708 |
| institution | Massachusetts Institute of Technology |
| language | en_US |
| last_indexed | 2024-09-23T08:18:55Z |
| publishDate | 2015 |
| publisher | Institute of Physics/American Astronomical Society |
| record_format | dspace |
| spelling | mit-1721.1/967082022-09-23T12:13:42Z THREE-DIMENSIONAL ATMOSPHERIC CIRCULATION OF WARM AND HOT JUPITERS: EFFECTS OF ORBITAL DISTANCE, ROTATION PERIOD, AND NONSYNCHRONOUS ROTATION Showman, Adam P. Lewis, Nikole Fortney, Jonathan J. Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Department of Earth, Atmospheric, and Planetary Sciences Lewis, Nikole Efforts to characterize extrasolar giant planet (EGP) atmospheres have so far emphasized planets within 0.05 AU of their stars. Despite this focus, known EGPs populate a continuum of orbital separations from canonical hot Jupiter values (0.03–0.05 AU) out to 1 AU and beyond. Unlike typical hot Jupiters, these more distant EGPs will not generally be synchronously rotating. In anticipation of observations of this population, we here present three-dimensional atmospheric circulation models exploring the dynamics that emerge over a broad range of rotation rates and incident stellar fluxes appropriate for warm and hot Jupiters. We find that the circulation resides in one of two basic regimes. On typical hot Jupiters, the strong day–night heating contrast leads to a broad, fast superrotating (eastward) equatorial jet and large day–night temperature differences. At faster rotation rates and lower incident fluxes, however, the day–night heating gradient becomes less important, and baroclinic instabilities emerge as a dominant player, leading to eastward jets in the midlatitudes, minimal temperature variations in longitude, and, often, weak winds at the equator. Our most rapidly rotating and least irradiated models exhibit similarities to Jupiter and Saturn, illuminating the dynamical continuum between hot Jupiters and the weakly irradiated giant planets of our own solar system. We present infrared (IR) light curves and spectra of these models, which depend significantly on incident flux and rotation rate. This provides a way to identify the regime transition in future observations. In some cases, IR light curves can provide constraints on the rotation rate of nonsynchronously rotating planets. United States. National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA Origins and Planetary Atmospheres grant NNX12AI79G)) United States. National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA Origins and Planetary Atmospheres grant NNX10AB91G) 2015-04-22T18:32:32Z 2015-04-22T18:32:32Z 2015-03 2014-11 Article http://purl.org/eprint/type/JournalArticle 1538-4357 http://hdl.handle.net/1721.1/96708 Showman, Adam P., Nikole K. Lewis, and Jonathan J. Fortney. “THREE-DIMENSIONAL ATMOSPHERIC CIRCULATION OF WARM AND HOT JUPITERS: EFFECTS OF ORBITAL DISTANCE, ROTATION PERIOD, AND NONSYNCHRONOUS ROTATION.” The Astrophysical Journal 801, no. 2 (March 10, 2015): 95. © 2015 American Astronomical Society. en_US http://dx.doi.org/10.1088/0004-637X/801/2/95 Astrophysical Journal Article is made available in accordance with the publisher's policy and may be subject to US copyright law. Please refer to the publisher's site for terms of use. application/pdf Institute of Physics/American Astronomical Society IOP Publishing |
| spellingShingle | Showman, Adam P. Lewis, Nikole Fortney, Jonathan J. THREE-DIMENSIONAL ATMOSPHERIC CIRCULATION OF WARM AND HOT JUPITERS: EFFECTS OF ORBITAL DISTANCE, ROTATION PERIOD, AND NONSYNCHRONOUS ROTATION |
| title | THREE-DIMENSIONAL ATMOSPHERIC CIRCULATION OF WARM AND HOT JUPITERS: EFFECTS OF ORBITAL DISTANCE, ROTATION PERIOD, AND NONSYNCHRONOUS ROTATION |
| title_full | THREE-DIMENSIONAL ATMOSPHERIC CIRCULATION OF WARM AND HOT JUPITERS: EFFECTS OF ORBITAL DISTANCE, ROTATION PERIOD, AND NONSYNCHRONOUS ROTATION |
| title_fullStr | THREE-DIMENSIONAL ATMOSPHERIC CIRCULATION OF WARM AND HOT JUPITERS: EFFECTS OF ORBITAL DISTANCE, ROTATION PERIOD, AND NONSYNCHRONOUS ROTATION |
| title_full_unstemmed | THREE-DIMENSIONAL ATMOSPHERIC CIRCULATION OF WARM AND HOT JUPITERS: EFFECTS OF ORBITAL DISTANCE, ROTATION PERIOD, AND NONSYNCHRONOUS ROTATION |
| title_short | THREE-DIMENSIONAL ATMOSPHERIC CIRCULATION OF WARM AND HOT JUPITERS: EFFECTS OF ORBITAL DISTANCE, ROTATION PERIOD, AND NONSYNCHRONOUS ROTATION |
| title_sort | three dimensional atmospheric circulation of warm and hot jupiters effects of orbital distance rotation period and nonsynchronous rotation |
| url | http://hdl.handle.net/1721.1/96708 |
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