A Scaling for Atmospheric Heat Redistribution on Tidally Locked Rocky Planets

Monday 28 Mar 2022, 13:30 → 13:50 Europe/Rome

0/0-3 - Sala Rosino (Dipartimento di Fisica e Astronomia - Edificio ex-Rizzato)

Speakers: Biagio Ambrosio (Università degli Studi di Padova)

Atmospheric heat redistribution shapes the remote appearance of rocky exoplanets, but there is currently no easyway to predict a planet’s heat redistribution from its physical properties. This paper proposes an analytical scalingtheory for the heat redistribution on tidally locked rocky exoplanets. The main parameters of the scaling are aplanet’s equilibrium temperature, surface pressure, and broadband longwave optical thickness. The scalingcompares favorably against idealized general circulation model simulations of TRAPPIST-1b, GJ1132b, and LHS3844b. For these planets, heat redistribution generally becomes efficient, and a planet’s observable thermal phasecurve and secondary eclipse start to deviate significantly from that of a bare rock, once surface pressure exceeds1()bar. The scaling additionally points to planetary scenarios for which heat transport can be notably more orless efficient, such as H2and CO atmospheres or hot lava ocean worlds. The results thus bridge the gap betweentheory and imminent observations with the James Webb Space Telescope. They can also be used to parameterizethe effect of 3D atmospheric dynamics in 1D models, thereby improving the self-consistency of such models.

JC schedule

Koll_2022_ApJ_924_134.pdf

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