Morphological analysis of polar landing regions for a solar powered ice drilling mission
Icarus Elsevier 411 (2024) 115927
Global Chemical Transport on Hot Jupiters: Insights from the 2D VULCAN Photochemical Model
The Astrophysical Journal American Astronomical Society 963:1 (2024) 41-41
Abstract:
The atmospheric dynamics of tidally-locked hot Jupiters is characterized by strong equatorial winds. Understanding the interaction between global circulation and chemistry is crucial in atmospheric studies and interpreting observations. Two-dimensional (2D) photochemical transport models shed light on how the atmospheric composition depends on circulation. In this paper, we introduce the 2D photochemical (horizontal and vertical) transport model, VULCAN 2D, which improves on the pseudo-2D approaches by allowing for non-uniform zonal winds. We extensively validate our VULCAN 2D with analytical solutions and benchmark comparisons. Applications to HD 189733 b and HD 209458 b reveal a transition in mixing regimes: horizontal transport predominates below $\sim$0.1 mbar while vertical mixing is more important at higher altitudes above 0.1 mbar. Motivated by the previously inferred carbon-rich atmosphere, we find that HD 209458 b with super-solar carbon-to-oxygen ratio (C/O) exhibits pronounced C$_2$H$_4$ absorption on the morning limb but not on the evening limb, owing to horizontal transport from the nightside. We discuss when a pseudo-2D approach is a valid assumption and its inherent limitations. Finally, we demonstrate the effect of horizontal transport in transmission observations and its impact on the morning-evening limb asymmetry with synthetic spectra, highlighting the need to consider global transport when interpreting exoplanet atmospheres.Comment: 19 pages, 20 figures, published in Ap
The Weird and the Wonderful in Our Solar System: Searching for Serendipity in the Legacy Survey of Space and Time
The Astronomical Journal, 167:118 (14pp), 2024 March
Abstract:
We present a novel method for anomaly detection in solar system object data in preparation for the Legacy Survey of Space and Time. We train a deep autoencoder for anomaly detection and use the learned latent space to search for other interesting objects. We demonstrate the efficacy of the autoencoder approach by finding interesting examples, such as interstellar objects, and show that by using the autoencoder, further examples of interesting classes can be found. We also investigate the limits of classic unsupervised approaches to anomaly detection through the generation of synthetic anomalies and evaluate the feasibility of using a supervised learning approach. Future work should consider expanding the feature space to increase the variety of anomalies that can be uncovered during the survey using an autoencoder.
Correction to: Modelling the seasonal cycle of Uranus's colour and magnitude, and comparison with Neptune
Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society Oxford University Press (OUP) 528:3 (2024) 4701-4701
Variability in Titan's Mesospheric HCN and Temperature Structure as Observed by ALMA
(2024)