1. |
- Bell, Taylor, et al.
(författare)
-
Nightside clouds and disequilibrium chemistry on the hot Jupiter WASP-43b
- 2024
-
Ingår i: Nature Astronomy. - 2397-3366. ; 8:7, s. 879-898
-
Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- Hot Jupiters are among the best-studied exoplanets, but it is still poorly understood how their chemical composition and cloud properties vary with longitude. Theoretical models predict that clouds may condense on the nightside and that molecular abundances can be driven out of equilibrium by zonal winds. Here we report a phase-resolved emission spectrum of the hot Jupiter WASP-43b measured from 5 μm to 12 μm with the JWST’s Mid-Infrared Instrument. The spectra reveal a large day–night temperature contrast (with average brightness temperatures of 1,524 ± 35 K and 863 ± 23 K, respectively) and evidence for water absorption at all orbital phases. Comparisons with three-dimensional atmospheric models show that both the phase-curve shape and emission spectra strongly suggest the presence of nightside clouds that become optically thick to thermal emission at pressures greater than ~100 mbar. The dayside is consistent with a cloudless atmosphere above the mid-infrared photosphere. Contrary to expectations from equilibrium chemistry but consistent with disequilibrium kinetics models, methane is not detected on the nightside (2σ upper limit of 1–6 ppm, depending on model assumptions). Our results provide strong evidence that the atmosphere of WASP-43b is shaped by disequilibrium processes and provide new insights into the properties of the planet’s nightside clouds. However, the remaining discrepancies between our observations and our predictive atmospheric models emphasize the importance of further exploring the effects of clouds and disequilibrium chemistry in numerical models.
|
|
2. |
|
|
3. |
- Lee, Elspeth K.H., et al.
(författare)
-
3D Radiative Transfer for Exoplanet Atmospheres. gCMCRT : A GPU-accelerated MCRT Code
- 2022
-
Ingår i: Astrophysical Journal. - : American Astronomical Society. - 0004-637X .- 1538-4357. ; 929:2
-
Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- Radiative transfer (RT) is a key component for investigating atmospheres of planetary bodies. With the 3D nature of exoplanet atmospheres being important in giving rise to their observable properties, accurate and fast 3D methods are required to be developed to meet future multidimensional and temporal data sets. We develop an open-source GPU RT code, gCMCRT, a Monte Carlo RT forward model for general use in planetary atmosphere RT problems. We aim to automate the post-processing pipeline, starting from direct global circulation model (GCM) output to synthetic spectra. We develop albedo, emission, and transmission spectra modes for 3D and 1D input structures. We include capability to use correlated-k and high-resolution opacity tables, the latter of which can be Doppler-shifted inside the model. We post-process results from several GCM groups, including ExoRad, SPARC/MITgcm THOR, UK Met Office UM, Exo-FMS, and the Rauscher model. Users can therefore take advantage of desktop and HPC GPU computing solutions. gCMCRT is well suited for post-processing large GCM model grids produced by members of the community and for high-resolution 3D investigations.
|
|