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Juno Jupiter image

Thaddeus Komacek

Associate Professor of Physics of Exoplanet Atmospheres

Research theme

  • Exoplanets and planetary physics

Sub department

  • Atmospheric, Oceanic and Planetary Physics

Research groups

  • Exoplanet atmospheres
tad.komacek@physics.ox.ac.uk
Atmospheric Physics Clarendon Laboratory, room 209D
  • About
  • Teaching
  • Research
  • Publications

Vertical tracer mixing in hot Jupiter atmospheres

Astrophysical Journal American Astronomical Society 881:2 (2019) 152

Authors:

Thaddeus D Komacek, Adam P Showman, Vivien Parmentier

Abstract:

Aerosols appear to be ubiquitous in close-in gas giant atmospheres, and disequilibrium chemistry likely impacts the emergent spectra of these planets. Lofted aerosols and disequilibrium chemistry are caused by vigorous vertical transport in these heavily irradiated atmospheres. Here we numerically and analytically investigate how vertical transport should change over the parameter space of spin-synchronized gas giants. In order to understand how tracer transport depends on planetary parameters, we develop an analytic theory to predict vertical velocities and mixing rates (K zz) and compare the results to our numerical experiments. We find that both our theory and numerical simulations predict that if the vertical mixing rate is described by an eddy diffusivity, then this eddy diffusivity K zz should increase with increasing equilibrium temperature, decreasing frictional drag strength, and increasing chemical loss timescales. We find that the transition in our numerical simulations between circulation dominated by a superrotating jet and that with solely day-to-night flow causes a marked change in the vertical velocity structure and tracer distribution. The mixing ratio of passive tracers is greatest for intermediate drag strengths that correspond to this transition between a superrotating jet with columnar vertical velocity structure and day-to-night flow with upwelling on the dayside and downwelling on the nightside. Finally, we present analytic solutions for K zz as a function of planetary effective temperature, chemical loss timescales, and other parameters, for use as input to 1D chemistry models of spin-synchronized gas giant atmospheres.
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Scaling Relations for Terrestrial Exoplanet Atmospheres from Baroclinic Criticality

(2019)

Authors:

Thaddeus D Komacek, Malte F Jansen, Eric T Wolf, Dorian S Abbot
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Details from ArXiV

Constraining Exoplanet Metallicities and Aerosols with ARIEL: An Independent Study by the Contribution to ARIEL Spectroscopy of Exoplanets (CASE) Team

(2019)

Authors:

Robert T Zellem, Mark R Swain, Nicolas B Cowan, Geoffrey Bryden, Thaddeus D Komacek, Mark Colavita, David Ardila, Gael M Roudier, Jonathan J Fortney, Jacob Bean, Michael R Line, Caitlin A Griffith, Evgenya L Shkolnik, Laura Kreidberg, Julianne I Moses, Adam P Showman, Kevin B Stevenson, Andre Wong, John W Chapman, David R Ciardi, Andrew W Howard, Tiffany Kataria, Eliza M-R Kempton, David Latham, Suvrath Mahadevan, Jorge Melendez, Vivien Parmentier
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Effects of Radius and Gravity on the Inner Edge of the Habitable Zone

The Astrophysical Journal Letters American Astronomical Society 876:2 (2019) l27

Authors:

Huanzhou Yang, Thaddeus D Komacek, Dorian S Abbot
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Effects of Radius and Gravity on the Inner Edge of the Habitable Zone

(2019)

Authors:

Huanzhou Yang, Thaddeus D Komacek, Dorian S Abbot
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