Exoplanet atmospheres

Abstract:

Understanding how Earth has sustained surface liquid water throughout its history remains a key challenge, given that the Sun's luminosity was much lower in the past. Here we show that with an atmospheric composition consistent with the most recent constraints, the early Earth would have been significantly warmed by H(2)-N(2) collision-induced absorption. With two to three times the present-day atmospheric mass of N(2) and a H(2) mixing ratio of 0.1, H(2)-N(2) warming would be sufficient to raise global mean surface temperatures above 0°C under 75% of present-day solar flux, with CO(2) levels only 2 to 25 times the present-day values. Depending on their time of emergence and diversification, early methanogens may have caused global cooling via the conversion of H(2) and CO(2) to CH(4), with potentially observable consequences in the geological record.

Abstract:

We developed a line-by-line heating and cooling rate model for the stratosphere of Jupiter, based on two complete sets of global maps of temperature, CH and CH, retrieved from the Cassini and Voyager observations in the latitude and vertical plane, with a careful error analysis. The non-LTE effect is found unimportant on the thermal cooling rate below the 0.01 mbar pressure level. The most important coolants are molecular hydrogen between 10 and 100 mbar, and hydrocarbons, including ethane (CH), acetylene (CH) and methane (CH), in the region above. The two-dimensional cooling rate maps are influenced primarily by the temperature structure, and also by the meridional distributions of CH and CH. The temperature anomalies at the 1 mbar pressure level in the Cassini data and the strong CH latitudinal contrast in the Voyager epoch are the two most prominent features influencing the cooling rate patterns, with the effect from the 'quasi-quadrennial oscillation (QQO)' thermal structures at ~20 mbar. The globally averaged CH heating and cooling rates are not balanced, clearly in the lower stratosphere under 10 mbar, and possibly in the upper stratosphere above the 1 mbar pressure level. Possible heating sources from the gravity wave breaking and aerosols are discussed. The radiative relaxation timescale in the lower stratosphere implies that the temperature profile might not be purely radiatively controlled. © 2013 Elsevier Ltd.