Planetary Climate Dynamics

Abstract:

The wintertime Southern Hemisphere extratropical circulation exhibits considerable zonal asymmetries. We investigate the roles of various surface boundary conditions in shaping the mean state using a semi-realistic, atmosphere-only climate model. We find, in agreement with previous literature, that tropical sea surface temperature (SST) patterns are an important contributor to the mean state, while midlatitude SSTs and sea ice extent play a smaller role. Our main finding is that Antarctic orography has a first-order effect on the structure of the midlatitude circulation. In the absence of Antarctic orography, equatorward eddy momentum fluxes associated with the orography are removed and hence convergence of eddy momentum in midlatitudes is reduced. This weakens the Indian Ocean jet, making Rossby wave propagation downstream to the South Pacific less favorable. Consequently, the flow stagnates over the mid- to high-latitude South Pacific and the characteristic split jet pattern is destroyed. Removing Antarctic orography also results in a substantial warming over East Antarctica partly because transient eddies are able to penetrate farther poleward, enhancing poleward heat transport. However, experiments in which a high-latitude cooling is applied indicate that these temperature changes are not the primary driver of circulation changes in the midlatitudes. Instead, we invoke a simple barotropic mechanism in which the orographic slope creates an effective potential vorticity gradient that alters the eddy momentum flux.

Abstract:

Recent work has demonstrated that high levels of X-ray and UV activity on young M dwarfs may drive rapid atmospheric escape on temperate, terrestrial planets orbiting within the habitable zone. However, secondary atmospheres on planets orbiting older, less active M dwarfs may be stable and present more promising candidates for biomarker searches. In order to evaluate the potential habitability of Earth-like planets around old, inactive M dwarfs, we present new Hubble Space Telescope and Chandra X-ray Observatory observations of Barnard's Star (GJ 699), a 10 Gyr old M3.5 dwarf, acquired as part of the Mega-MUSCLES program. Despite the old age and long rotation period of Barnard's Star, we observe two FUV (δ130 ≈ 5000 s; E130 ≈ 1029.5 erg each) and one X-ray (EX ≈ 1029.2 erg) flares, and we estimate a high-energy flare duty cycle (defined here as the fraction of the time the star is in a flare state) of ~25%. A publicly available 5 Å to 10 μm spectral energy distribution of GJ 699 is created and used to evaluate the atmospheric stability of a hypothetical, unmagnetized terrestrial planet in the habitable zone (rHZ ~ 0.1 au). Both thermal and nonthermal escape modeling indicate (1) the quiescent stellar XUV flux does not lead to strong atmospheric escape: atmospheric heating rates are comparable to periods of high solar activity on modern Earth, and (2) the flare environment could drive the atmosphere into a hydrodynamic loss regime at the observed flare duty cycle: sustained exposure to the flare environment of GJ 699 results in the loss of ≈87 Earth atmospheres Gyr−1 through thermal processes and ≈3 Earth atmospheres Gyr−1 through ion loss processes. These results suggest that if rocky planet atmospheres can survive the initial ~5 Gyr of high stellar activity, or if a second-generation atmosphere can be formed or acquired, the flare duty cycle may be the controlling stellar parameter for the stability of Earth-like atmospheres around old M stars.

Abstract:

In this chapter, we review the contribution of space missions to the determination of the elemental and isotopic composition of Earth, Moon and the terrestrial planets, with special emphasis on currently planned and future missions. We show how these missions are going to significantly contribute to, or sometimes revolutionise, our understanding of planetary evolution, from formation to the possible emergence of life. We start with the Earth, which is a unique habitable body with actual life, and that is strongly related to its atmosphere. The new wave of missions to the Moon is then reviewed, which are going to study its formation history, the structure and dynamics of its tenuous exosphere and the interaction of the Moon’s surface and exosphere with the different sources of plasma and radiation of its environment, including the solar wind and the escaping Earth’s upper atmosphere. Missions to study the noble gas atmospheres of the terrestrial planets, Venus and Mars, are then examined. These missions are expected to trace the evolutionary paths of these two noble gas atmospheres, with a special emphasis on understanding the effect of atmospheric escape on the fate of water. Future missions to these planets will be key to help us establishing a comparative view of the evolution of climates and habitability at Earth, Venus and Mars, one of the most important and challenging open questions of planetary science. Finally, as the detection and characterisation of exoplanets is currently revolutionising the scope of planetary science, we review the missions aiming to characterise the internal structure and the atmospheres of these exoplanets.

Abstract:

©2020. The Authors. Simulations show that storm tracks were weaker during past cold, icy climates relative to the modern climate despite increased surface baroclinicity. Previous work explained the weak North Atlantic storm track during the Last Glacial Maximum using dry zonally asymmetric mechanisms associated with orographic forcing. Here we show that zonally symmetric mechanisms associated with the hydrological cycle explain the weak Snowball Earth storm track. The weak storm track is consistent with the decreased meridional gradient of evaporation and atmospheric shortwave absorption and can be predicted following global mean cooling and the Clausius-Clapeyron relation. The weak storm track is also consistent with decreased latent heat release aloft in the tropics, which decreases upper tropospheric baroclinicity and mean available potential energy. Overall, both hydrological cycle mechanisms are reflected in the significant correlation between storm track intensity and the meridional surface moist static energy gradient across a range of simulated climates between modern and Snowball Earth.

Abstract:

Tidally locked gas giants, which exhibit a novel regime of day–night thermal forcing and extreme stellar irradiation, are typically in several-day orbits, implying a modest role for rotation in the atmospheric circulation. Nevertheless, there exist a class of gas-giant, highly irradiated objects—brown dwarfs orbiting white dwarfs in extremely tight orbits—whose orbital and hence rotation periods are as short as 1–2 hr. Phase curves and other observations have already been obtained for this class of objects, raising fundamental questions about the role of an increasing planetary rotation rate in controlling the circulation. So far, most modeling studies have investigated rotation periods exceeding a day, as appropriate for typical hot Jupiters. In this work, we investigate atmospheric circulation of tidally locked atmospheres with decreasing rotation periods (increasing rotation rate) down to 2.5 hr. With a decreasing rotation period, we show that the width of the equatorial eastward jet decreases, consistent with the narrowing of the equatorial waveguide due to a decrease of the equatorial deformation radius. The eastward-shifted equatorial hot-spot offset decreases accordingly, and the off-equatorial westward-shifted hot areas become increasingly distinctive. At high latitudes, winds become weaker and more rotationally dominated. The day–night temperature contrast becomes larger due to the stronger influence of rotation. Our simulated atmospheres exhibit variability, presumably caused by instabilities and wave interactions. Unlike typical hot Jupiter models, the thermal phase curves of rapidly rotating models show a near alignment of peak flux to secondary eclipse. This result helps to explain why, unlike hot Jupiters, brown dwarfs closely orbiting white dwarfs tend to exhibit IR flux peaks nearly aligned with secondary eclipse. Our results have important implications for understanding fast-rotating, tidally locked atmospheres.